Methods and apparatus for supporting wireless medium sharing

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus for supporting wireless medium sharing in wireless communications systems, e.g., various 802.11 wireless communications systems, are described. A novel shared transmission type of trigger frame is implemented, which allows a wireless station, acting as a host station, to make available transmission resources, which have been acquired by the wireless station, to one or more guest stations. A shared transmission type of trigger frame, generated and transmitted by the host station communicates information identifying the attributes of a corresponding trigger based (TB) frame, information identifying resources of the TB frame to be used by the host station and information identifying one or more set of shared resources which may be used by guest station(s). The trigger based (TB) frame, corresponding to the transmitted shared transmission type trigger frame, is used by the host station and one or more guest stations to transmit data to an access point.

FIELD

The present application relates to communications methods and apparatus,and more particularly, to wireless medium sharing methods and apparatusfor traffic, e.g., low latency uplink traffic such as 802.11 uplinktraffic.

BACKGROUND

The next generation 802.11/WiFi technology, 802.11be, is underdevelopment. The main candidate features that have been discussed are:larger bandwidth (e.g., 320 MHz) and more efficient utilization ofnon-contiguous spectrum, Multi-band/multi-channel aggregations andoperation, 16 spatial streams and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)protocols enhancements, Multi-Access Point (AP) Coordination (e.g.,coordinated and joint transmission), Enhanced link adaptation andretransmission protocol (e.g., Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARM)),and if needed, adaptation to regulatory rules to 6 GHz spectrum.

The 802.11be project definition is as follows: “New high-throughput, lowlatency applications will proliferate such a virtual reality oraugmented reality, gaming, remote office and cloud computing (e.g.,latency lower than 5 ms for real-time gaming). With the high throughputand stringent real-time delay requirements of these applications, usersexpect enhanced throughput, enhanced reliability, reduced latency andjitter, and improved power efficiency in supporting their applicationsover WLAN.”

802.11 technologies are prone to channel access delay and variation inchannel access delay, i.e., jitter. This makes 802.11/WiFi undesirablefor low-latency applications such as gaming, virtual reality (VR)applications, etc.

With new 11ax/be features, especially multi-link and multi-bandaggregation, there is an opportunity to tackle the channel access issuethat 802.11 technologies have had.

In all 802.11 formats, there exist legacy PHY header (Legacy-ShortTraining Field (L-STF), Legacy-Long Training (L-LTF), Legacy-Signal(L-SIG)), originated from the first WiFi generation; 802.11a. All futureversions of 802.11, in 2.4/5/6 GHz, recognize this header and defer tothe framework that follows it.

FIG. 1 includes a drawing of an 802.11a message 102 illustrating messageformat also referred to as non-High Throughput (non-HT) format. The802.11a non-HT message 102 includes a L-STF field, a L-LTF field, aL-SIG field, a service field (16 bits), a Physical Layer ConvergenceProcedure (PLCP) Service Data Unit (PSDU) field, a 6-Ngg Tail bitsfield, and a Pad bits field. The service field (16 bits), PSDU field,6-Ngg Tail bits field, Pad bits field are part of the DATA portion ofthe message 102.

Newer generations after 11a, also search for indications after thelegacy header to identify if what follows is 11n/ac/ax/be.

FIG. 1 further includes a drawing of an 802.11ac message 104illustrating message Very High Throughput (VHT) format. The 802.11ac(VHT format) message 104 includes a L-STF field of duration TSHORT, aL-LTF field of duration TLONG, a L-SIG field of duration TSIGNAL, aVHT-SIG-A field of 8 micro-sec duration, a VHT-LTF field, with eachVHT-LTF symbol having a duration of 4 micro-sec, a VHT-SIG-B field of 4micro-sec, a service field (16 bits), a PSDU field, and a Pad bitsfield, and a 6-Ngg Tail bits field. The service field (16 bits), PSDUfield, Pad bits field are part of the DATA (non-LDCP case only) portionof the message 104.

FIG. 2 is a drawing 200 illustrating various 802.11ax (High Efficiency(HE) FORMATS). Drawing 200 of FIG. 2 includes an 802.11ax message 2002illustrating HE Single User (SU) Format PLPC Protocol Data Unit (PPDU).The 802.11ax HE SU Format PPDU message 202 includes a L-STF field of 8micro-sec duration, a L-LTF field of 8 micro-sec duration, a L-SIG fieldof 4 micro-sec duration, a Repeated Legacy-Signal (RL-SIG) field of 4micro-sec duration, a HE-SIG-A field of 8 micro-sec duration, a HE-STFfield of 4 micro-sec duration, and a field of HE-LTF symbols of variabledurations per HE-LTF symbol, a data field, and a Packet Extension (PE)field. The LTF-STF field, L-LTF field and L-SIG field are included inthe legacy preamble portion of the message 202. The RL-SIG field, theHE-SIG-A field, the HE-STF field and the field of HE-LTF symbols areincluded in the HE preamble portion of the message 202. The data fieldand PE field are included in the DATA portion of the message 202.

Drawing 200 of FIG. 2 further includes an 802.11ax message 204illustrating HE extended range SU Format PPDU. The 802.11ax HE ExtendedRange SU Format PPDU message 204 includes a L-STF field of 8 micro-secduration, a L-LTF field of 8 micro-sec duration, a L-SIG field of 4micro-sec duration, a RL-SIG field of 4 micro-sec duration, a HE-SIG-Afield of 16 micro-sec duration, a HE-STF field of 4 micro-sec duration,and a field of HE-LTF symbols of variable durations per HE-LTF symbol, adata field, and a PE field. The LTF-STF field, L-LTF field and L-SIGfield are included in the legacy preamble portion of the message 204.The RL-SIG field, the HE-SIG-A field, the HE-STF field, and the field ofHE-LTF symbols are included in the HE preamble portion of the message204. The data field and PE field are included in the DATA portion of themessage 204.

Drawing 200 of FIG. 2 further includes an 802.11ax message 206illustrating HE Trigger Based (TB) Format PPDU. The 802.11ax HE TBFormat PPDU message 206 includes a L-STF field of 8 micro-sec duration,a L-LTF field of 8 micro-sec duration, a L-SIG field of 4 micro-secduration, a RL-SIG field of 4 micro-sec duration, a HE-SIG-A field of 8micro-sec duration, a HE-STF field of 8 micro-sec duration, and a fieldof HE-LTF symbols of variable durations per HE-LTF symbol, a data field,and a PE field. The LTF-STF field, L-LTF field and L-SIG field areincluded in the legacy preamble portion of the message 206. The RL-SIGfield, the HE-SIG-A field, the HE-STF field, and the field of HE-LTFsymbols are included in the HE preamble portion of the message 206. Thedata field and PE field are included in the DATA portion of the message206.

Drawing 200 of FIG. 2 further includes an 802.11ax message 208illustrating HE Multi-User (MU) Format PPDU. The 802.11ax HE MU FormatPPDU message 208 includes a L-STF field of 8 micro-sec duration, a L-LTFfield of 8 micro-sec duration, a L-SIG field of 4 micro-sec duration, aRL-SIG field of 4 micro-sec duration, a HE-SIG-A field of 8 micro-secduration, a HE-SIG-B field with each symbol having a duration of 4micro-sec, a HE-STF field of 4 micro-sec duration, and a field of HE-LTFsymbols of variable durations per HE-LTF symbol, a data field, and a PEfield. The LTF-STF field, L-LTF field and L-SIG field are included inthe legacy preamble portion of the message 208. The RL-SIG field, theHE-SIG-A field, HE-SIG-B field, the HE-STF field, and the field ofHE-LTF symbols are included in the HE preamble portion of the message208. The data field and PE field are included in the DATA portion of themessage 208.

In the 802.11ax PHY layer header symbols: i) the HE-STF training symbolfield allows receivers to synchronize to the timing and frequency of theincoming frame before decoding the packet body; and ii) the HE-LTF isimportant for channel estimation, enabling beamforming and MIMO spatialdiversity.

While 802.11be is under development, it is expected to have similarSTF/LTF symbols.

In 802.11ax, multi-user UL transmission is enabled by exchanging ofTrigger frame (from an access point (AP)) and transmission byidentified/responding stations (STAs). This is shown in drawing 700 ofFIG. 7. Drawing 700 of FIG. 7 includes a vertical axis 702 representingfrequency, and a horizontal axis 704 representing time. Trigger frame706 is sent (transmitted) by the AP in the downlink. Trigger based (TB)PPDUs 708 are send by STAs in the uplink including data for one or moreSTAs (data for STA 1 712, data for STA 2 714, . . . , data for STA m)716. ACKs 710 are sent by the AP in the downlink.

FIG. 6 is a table 600 showing a few identified varieties of triggerframes and the Trigger Type subfield encoding corresponding to each typeof trigger frame. First column 602 of table 600 lists trigger typesubfield value and second column 604 of table 600 lists trigger framevariant. A Trigger Type subfield value of 0 indicates Basic. A TriggerType subfield value of 1 indicates Beamforming Report Poll (BFRP). ATrigger Type subfield value of 2 indicates MU-BAR. A Trigger Typesubfield value of 3 indicates MU-RTS. A Trigger Type subfield value of 4indicates Buffer Status Report Poll (BSRP). A Trigger Type subfieldvalue of 5 indicates GCR MU-BAR. A Trigger Type subfield value of 6indicates Bandwidth Query Report Poll (BQRP). A Trigger Type subfieldvalue of 7 indicates NDP Feedback Report Poll (NFRP). Trigger TypeSubfield values of 8-15 are reserved.

FIG. 3 is a drawing 300 illustrates fields in a Trigger frame formatmessage 302 and the corresponding number of bits 304 for each field. TheTrigger frame format message 302 includes a MAC header 300, whichincludes a frame control field of 2 octets of bits, a duration field of2 octets of bits, a RA field of 6 octets of bits, and a TA field of 6octets of bits. The trigger frame format message 302 further includes aCommon Info field of 8 or more octets of bits, a User Info field ofvariable length, a padding field of variable length and a FCS field of 4octets of bits.

FIG. 4 is a drawing 400 which illustrates fields within Common Field 402of the Trigger frame format message 302, the corresponding number ofbits 304 for each field within the Common Field 402, and thecorresponding bit designations 406 for each field within the Commonfield. The Common field 402 includes a trigger type field of 4 bits (B0. . . B3), a UL field of 12 bits (B4 . . . B15), a MORE TF field of 1bit (B16), a CS Required field of 1 bit (B17), an UL BW field of 2 bits(B18, B19), a GI and HE-LTF type field of 2 bits (B20, B21), a MU-MIMOHE-LTF mode field of 1 bit (B22) and a number of He-LTF symbols andmid-amble periodicity field of 3 bits (B23 . . . B25), an UL STBC fieldof 1 bit (B26), a LPDC extra symbol SEG. field of 1 bit (B27), and AP TXpower field of 6 bits (B28 . . . B 33), a pre-FEC padding factor fieldof 2 bits (B34 . . . B35), a PE Dis-ambiguity filed of 1 bit (B36), andUL spatial Rouse field of 16 bits (B37 . . . B52), a Doppler field of 1bit (B53), an UL He-SAG-A2 field of nine bits (B54 . . . B63), aReserved field of 1 bit (B63) and a trigger dependent common info fieldof variable length.

FIG. 5 is a drawing 500 which illustrates fields within User Info Field502 of the Trigger frame format message 302, the corresponding number ofbits 504 for each field within the User Info Field 502, and thecorresponding bit designations 506 for each field within the User Infofield. The User Info field 502 includes an AID12 field of 12 bits (B0 .. . B11), a RU Allocation field of 8 bits (B12 . . . B19), an UL FECCoding Type field of 1 bit (B20), an UL HE-MCS field of 4 bits (B21 . .. B24), an UL DCM field of 1 bit (B25), a SS Allocation/RA RUinformation field of 6 bits (B26 . . . B31), an UL target RSSI field of7 bits (B32 . . . B38), a Reserved field of 1 bit (B39) and a TriggerDefendant User Info field of variable length.

Within the trigger frame format, the “Common info” is applicable to thewhole upcoming trigger-based (TB) frame. For the individual resourceportions assigned to a STA, the separate field “USER Info List” is used.

As described above with the high throughput and stringent real-timedelay requirements of many new and expected future applications, usersexpect enhanced throughput, enhanced reliability, reduced latency andjitter, and improved power efficiency in supporting their applications.Current 802.11 technologies are prone to channel access delay andvariation in channel access delay, i.e. jitter. This makes current802.11/WiFi undesirable for low-latency applications such as gaming,virtual reality (VR) applications, etc.

Based on the above, there is a need for new methods and apparatus toimprove 802.11/WiFi wireless communications particularly with regard tolow-latency applications.

SUMMARY

Methods and apparatus for supporting wireless medium, e.g., wirelessspectrum, sharing in wireless communications systems, e.g., various802.11 wireless communications systems such as 802.11be wirelesscommunications systems, are described. Various methods and apparatus arewell suited for use with low latency applications. A novel sharedtransmission type of trigger frame is implemented, which allows awireless station, acting as a host station, to make availabletransmission resources, which have been acquired by the wirelessstation, to one or more guest stations. A shared transmission type oftrigger frame, generated and transmitted by the host stationcommunicates information identifying the attributes of a correspondingtrigger based (TB) frame, information identifying resources of the TBframe to be used by the host station and information identifying one ormore set of shared resources which may be used by guest station(s). Thetrigger based (TB) frame, corresponding to the transmitted sharedtransmission type trigger frame, is used by the host station and one ormore guest stations to transmit data to an access point. At differenttimes the same wireless station may act as a host station or a gueststation. Thus, host station may, and sometimes does, make available,unused frequency-time resources, in the set of frequency channels it hasacquired, to one or more guest stations, which may need those resourcesto maintain low latency application(s) running on the guest stations.The shared resource type trigger frame/TB frame approach, in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment, provides an efficient mechanism forrapidly reallocating air link resources among a plurality of wirelessstations. An individual wireless station may act as a host stationduring some time intervals and act as a guest station during other timeintervals.

An exemplary method of operating a first wireless station, in accordancewith some embodiments, comprises: during a first time period, operatingthe first wireless station to act as a host station, operating as a hoststation including: making a decision to make one or more transmissionresources acquired by the first wireless station available for use byone or more other wireless stations a during a first frame time period;transmitting a first trigger frame including a type indicator indicatingthat the trigger frame is a shared transmission type of trigger frameand information identifying one or more sets of shared resource units;and transmitting a first trigger based (TB) frame corresponding to thefirst trigger frame, said first trigger based frame including aplurality of resource units, transmitting the first trigger based frameincluding transmitting energy on some but not all of the resource unitsin said first trigger based frame.

While various features discussed in the summary are used in someembodiments it should be appreciated that not all features are requiredor necessary for all embodiments and the mention of features in thesummary should in no way be interpreted as implying that the feature isnecessary or critical for all embodiments.

Numerous additional features and embodiments are discussed in thedetailed description which follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates 802.11a message format also referred to as non-HTformat and 802.11ac message VHT format.

FIG. 2 is a drawing illustrating various 802.11ax (HE FORMATS).

FIG. 3 is a drawing illustrates fields in a Trigger frame format messageand the corresponding number of bits for each field.

FIG. 4 is a drawing which illustrates fields within Common Field of theTrigger frame format message, the corresponding number of bits for eachfield within the Common Field, and the corresponding bit designationsfor the bits of each field within the Common field.

FIG. 5 is a drawing which illustrates fields within User Info Field ofthe Trigger frame format message, the corresponding number of bits foreach field within the User Info Field, and the corresponding bitdesignations for bits of each field within the User Info field.

FIG. 6 is a table showing a few identified varieties of trigger framesand the Trigger Type subfield encoding corresponding to each type oftrigger frame.

FIG. 7 is a plot of frequency vs time illustrating a trigger frametransmitted in downlink by an access point, trigger-based (TB) framestransmitted by stations (STAs) in the Uplink, and corresponding ACKstransmitted in downlink by the access point.

FIG. 8 is a drawing illustrating medium sharing in UL transmission inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a table including a list of different trigger frames and theTrigger Type subfield encoding corresponding to each type of triggerframe, said list of different trigger frame times including a SharedTransmission Trigger Frame type, in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 10 is a drawing illustrating fields in an exemplary Trigger frameformat message in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, and thecorresponding number of bits for each field of the trigger frame.

FIG. 11 is drawing illustrating a User Info field format for a User Infofield within a User Info List field within a Trigger Frame message, inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment, the corresponding number ofbits for each field within the user info field, and the correspondingbit designations for each field within the User Info field.

FIG. 12 is a drawing which illustrates exemplary User Information fieldsfor an example in which a Trigger Frame, which is generated andtransmitted by a host STA includes a trigger type value=8 signifying“Shared Transmission”, and the User Info list field of the Trigger Frameincludes a Host Information field, a Guest Information 1 field and aGuest Information n field, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a drawing which illustrates an exemplary User Informationfield for an example in which a Trigger Frame, which is generated andtransmitted by a host STA includes a trigger type value=8 signifying“Shared Transmission” and the User Info List field includes a HostInformation field but does not include any Guest Info Fields, indicatingthat the resources units (RUs) which are not being used by the Host STAmay be used by a single guest STA, in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of an exemplary method of operating a hoststation (STA) in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of an exemplary method of operating a gueststation (STA) in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of an exemplary method of operating an accesspoint (AP) in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 17 includes a time frequency plot for each of an exemplary hoststation, guest station and an access point, for an example of resourcesharing in UL transmission in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a drawing of an exemplary TB frame generated and transmittedby a guest STA in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart of an exemplary method of operating a guest STAin accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 20 includes a time frequency plot illustrating an exemplary triggerframe and a corresponding TB frame in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment, and a time frequency plot illustrate resource units (RUs)used by exemplary guest STA1 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 21 includes a time frequency plot illustrating an exemplary triggerframe and a corresponding TB frame in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment, and a time frequency plot illustrating the trigger frame,resource units of the TB frame used by the host STA and resource units(RUs) used by exemplary guest STA1 (including some RUs of the TB frameand some RUs outside the TB frame) in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 22 is drawing illustrating an exemplary first modified HE MU formatPPDU in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, which his used in ULmedium sharing by a host STA using MU transmission.

FIG. 23 is drawing illustrating an exemplary first modified HE MU formatPPDU in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, which is used, whichhis used in UL medium sharing by a host STA using MU transmission andenables full use of MCS by guest STAs.

FIG. 24A is a first part of a flowchart of an exemplary method ofoperating a first wireless station (STA) in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 24B is a second part of a flowchart of an exemplary method ofoperating a first wireless station (STA) in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 24C is a third part of a flowchart of an exemplary method ofoperating a first wireless station (STA) in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 24 comprises the combination of FIG. 24A, FIG. 24B and FIG. 24C.

FIG. 25 is a drawing of an exemplary wireless communications system inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 26 is a drawing of an exemplary wireless station (STA) inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 27 is a drawing of an exemplary access point (AP) in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 28A is a first part of an assembly of components which may beincluded in an exemplary wireless station in accordance with anexemplary embodiment.

FIG. 28B is a second part of an assembly of components which may beincluded in an exemplary wireless station in accordance with anexemplary embodiment.

FIG. 28C is a third part of an assembly of components which may beincluded in an exemplary wireless station in accordance with anexemplary embodiment.

FIG. 28 comprises the combination of FIG. 28A, FIG. 28B and FIG. 28C.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Medium sharing in uplink (UL) in accordance with various embodiment ofthe present invention will now be described. The principle of variousembodiments, in accordance with the present invention, are based onmedium sharing between stations (STAs) and AP/STAs. The medium sharinggenerally happens during a Transmission Opportunity (TXOP) (or Channeloccupancy Time (COT)). The details described here are regarding the STAsbehaviors during TXOP establishment and during frame transmission. Themain aspect here is that a host STA initiates an UL transmission (eitherin a series of frames, i.e., a TXOP, or in a single frame) and a subsetof resources are left unused for other guest STSs, e.g., with urgent andlow latency (LL) traffic.

In 802.11ax and 802.11be, STAs are capable of transmitting trigger based(TB) frames after receiving a trigger from their own AP. In variousembodiments, in accordance with the present invention, using thiscapability, additional novel STA and AP behaviors are implemented toenable medium sharing with a frame.

Note, in subsequent embodiments, symbols such as HE-SIG-A, HE-SIG-B,HE-STF and HE-LTF are named in reference to 802.11ax frame structure.However, for 802.11be, other prefixes such as ET may be used, e.g.ET-STF, etc.

FIG. 8 is a drawing 800 illustrating medium sharing in UL transmissionin accordance with an exemplary embodiment. Drawing 800 includes anaccess point (AP) 802 with a corresponding coverage area 803, and aplurality of stations (STAs) including a host STA, which is STA 1 804,and guest STAs including STA2 806, and, optionally additional guestSTAs, e.g., STA n 812. STA 1 804 initiates transmission and sharesportion of the frame with guest STA(s), as indicated by block 808. STA 2806, with low latency traffic, decodes a trigger frame, which wastransmitted by STA 1 804, and detects a sharable transmission, asindicated by block 810. Optionally STA n 812, with low latency traffic,decodes the trigger frame, which was transmitted by STA 1 804, anddetects a sharable transmission, as indicated by block 814.

A first exemplary embodiment of medium sharing in UL transmission willnow be described. A host STA initiates UL transmission but transmits noenergy on a subset of resources. The leftover resources may be, andsometimes are, used by other guest STAs, e.g., guest STA with lowlatency (LL) traffic, and may be of the following forms a subset ofspatial streams, a subset of OFDMA resource units (RU), or both.

To announce such transmission, a trigger frame followed by trigger-based(TB) frame mechanism is used, with specific behavior by host/guest STAsand AP which are outlined in the following. The host STA may, andsometimes does, transmit a trigger frame identifying: i) the type oftrigger, wherein type is: Trigger frame variant=Shared Transmission,value=8 (see row 906 of Trigger Type Subfield encoding table 900 of FIG.9); and ii) a list of left over frequency resources (e.g., set of RUs or20 MHz sub-bands unused by the host STA). In some embodiments, this listis specified in an additional User Info field (see guest info 1 1010, .. . guest info m 1012 of user info list 1006 of trigger frame format1010 of FIG. 10). Alternatively, there may be only one “User info” whichis the Host info (see host info 1008 of trigger frame format 1010 ofFIG. 10). the RUs listed in the Host info are the only RUs used by thehost STA, and the remaining RUs (out of all possible RUs) are the sharedRUs, available for one or more guest STA. The MCS to be used for theleftover RUs may, also be, and sometimes are, specified by the host STA.If none are specified it is assumed by the guest STAs and the AP thatthe same MCS as the one used by the host STA (for its own RUS) is used.

The PHY header attributes of the next TB frame, e.g. SIG-A andespecially the number of LTF symbols (e.g., HE LTF) can be obtained fromthe common info field of the trigger frame.

The host STA transmits the TB frame and does not transmit in theleftover RU (identified in the trigger frame.

FIG. 9 is a table 900 showing identified varieties of trigger frames andthe Trigger Type subfield encoding corresponding to each type of triggerframe in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. First column 902 oftable 900 lists trigger type subfield value and second column 904 oftable 900 lists trigger frame variant. A Trigger Type subfield value of0 indicates Basic. A Trigger Type subfield value of 1 indicatesBeamforming Report Poll (BFRP). A Trigger Type subfield value of 2indicates MU-BAR. A Trigger Type subfield value of 3 indicates MU-RTS. ATrigger Type subfield value of 4 indicates Buffer Status Report Poll(BSRP). A Trigger Type subfield value of 5 indicates GCR MU-BAR. ATrigger Type subfield value of 6 indicates Bandwidth Query Report Poll(BQRP). A Trigger Type subfield value of 7 indicates NDP Feedback ReportPoll (NFRP). Row 906 indicates that a trigger type subfield value of 8indicates Shared Transmission.

FIG. 10 is a drawing 1000 illustrates fields in an exemplary Triggerframe format message 1002, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment,and the corresponding number of bits 1004 for each field. The Triggerframe format message 1002 includes a MAC header 1000, which includes aframe control field of 2 octets of bits, a duration field of 2 octets ofbits, a RA field of 6 octets of bits, and a TA field of 6 octets ofbits. The trigger frame format message 1002 further includes a CommonInfo field 1005 of 8 or more octets of bits, a User Info field 1006 ofvariable length, a padding field of variable length and a FCS field of 4octets of bits.

Common Info field 1005 a trigger type subfield field 1007 including atrigger type value of 8 indicating “Shared Transmission”.

User info list field 1006 includes a host information field 1008, and insome embodiments, includes one or more guest information fields (guestinfo 1 field 1010, . . . , guest info n field 1012).

FIG. 11 is drawing 1100 illustrating User Information field format 1102for a User Info field within a user info list field within a TriggerFrame message, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, thecorresponding number of bits 1004 for each field within the user infofield, and the corresponding bit designations 1106 for each field withinthe User Info field. Exemplary User Info fields, for which the User Infofield format is used, include, e.g., host info field 1008, guest info 1field 1010 and guest info n field 1012.

FIG. 11 is a drawing 1100 which illustrates fields within User InfoField 1102 of the Trigger frame format message 1002, the correspondingnumber of bits 1104 for each field within the User Info Field 1102, andthe corresponding bit designations 1106 for each field within the UserInfo field. The User Info field 1102 includes an Association ID12(AID12) field 1108 of 12 bits (B0 . . . B11), a RU Allocation field 1110of 8 bits (B12 . . . B19), an UL FEC Coding Type field of 1 bit (B20),an UL HE-MCS field of 4 bits (B21 . . . B24), an UL DCM field of 1 bit(B25), a SS Allocation/RA RU information field of 6 bits (B26 . . .B31), an UL target RSSI field of 7 bits (B32 . . . B38), a Reservedfield of 1 bit (B39) and a Trigger Defendant User Info field of variablelength.

FIG. 12 is a drawing 1200 which illustrates exemplary user informationfields for an example in which a trigger message, which is generated andtransmitted by a host STA includes a trigger type value=8 (which is partof the common information field (bits B0-B3)) of trigger frame messagein accordance with the format of 1002, and the user info list 1006includes host information 1008, guest information 1 1010 and guestinformation n 1012. Drawing 1200 includes drawing 1100′ representing thehost information field 1008, drawing 1100″ representing guestinformation 1 1010 field, and drawing 1100″ representing guestinformation n field 1012.

Drawing 1100′ which illustrates fields within User Info Field 1102′(representing host info field 1008) of the Trigger frame format message1002, the corresponding number of bits 1104′ for each field within theUser Info Field 1102, and the corresponding bit designations 1106′ foreach field within the User Info field. The value of the AID field 1108′is set by the host STA, e.g., the 12 least significant bits of theassociation identifier of the host STA. The value of RU allocation filed1110′ includes the RU allocation for the host STA and identifies a setof RUs to be used by the host STA in the TB frame.

Drawing 1100″ which illustrates fields within User Info Field 1102″(representing guest info 1 field 1010) of the Trigger frame formatmessage 1002, the corresponding number of bits 1104′ for each fieldwithin the User Info Field 1102, and the corresponding bit designations1106′ for each field within the User Info field. The value of the AID12field 1108″ is set, by the host STA, to a fixed value, e.g.000000000000, to indicate availability for guest STAs. The value of RUallocation filed 1110″ includes the RU allocation for a first guest STAand identifies a set of RUs to be used by the first guest STA in the TBframe. Note that some of the fields within User Info Field 1102″(representing guest info 1 field 1010) may be left as reserved values,since the guest STA does not have enough information about the guestSTAs to provide reasonable values. Alternatively, a subset of the fieldsin User Info Field 1102″ may be provided by the guest STA.

Drawing 1100′″ which illustrates fields within User Info Field 1102′″(representing guest info 2 field 1012) of the Trigger frame formatmessage 1002, the corresponding number of bits 1104″ for each fieldwithin the User Info Field 1102, and the corresponding bit designations1106″ for each field within the User Info field. The value of the AID12field 1108′″ is set by the host STA to a fixed value, e.g. 000000000000,to indicate availability for guest STAs. The value of RU allocationfield 1110′″ includes the RU allocation for a second guest STA andidentifies a set of RUs to be used by the second guest STA in the TBframe. Note that some of the fields within User Info Field 1102′″(representing guest info 2 field 1012) may be left as reserved values,since the guest STA does not have enough information about the guestSTAs to provide reasonable values. Alternatively, a subset of the fieldsin User Info Field 1102′″ may be provided by the guest STA.

In some embodiments, the first guest STA is different than the secondguest STA. Thus in some embodiments, a guest STA is only allowed to useone set of guest STA resources.

In some embodiments, the first and second guest STA can be, andsometimes is the same guest STA. Thus, in some embodiments, a guest STAis allowed to use multiple sets of guest resources which the host STAhas indicated to be available.

FIG. 13 is a drawing 1300 which illustrates exemplary user informationfield for an example in which a trigger message, which is generated andtransmitted by a host STA includes a trigger type value=8 (which is partof the common information field (bits B0-B3)) of trigger frame messagein accordance with the format of 1002″″, and the user info list 1006includes host information 1008. Drawing 1300 includes drawing 1100″″representing the host information field 1008. In this exemplaryembodiment, there may only be one “User info”, which is the Host info(the User Info list consists of only host info). The value of the AID12field 1108″″ is set by the host STA. The RUs (RU Allocation) 1110″″listed in the Host Info 1102″″ (representing host info field 1008) arethe RUs used by the host STA, and the remaining RUs (out of all possibleRUs for the indicated bandwidth) are the leftover/shared RUs, which isavailable for only one guest host.

Various operation performed by a guest STA aiming to transmit on theleftover RUs will now be described. The guest STA, which has receivedthe Trigger Frame transmitted by the Host STA, identifies if the triggerframe is of type “Shared Transmission”. If the guest STA identifies thatthe received Trigger frame is of the type “Shared Transmission”, theguest STA identifies the leftover RUs and then uses the trigger frame tosync with the host STA (to align with the upcoming TB frame).

Next the guest STA performs Point Coordination Function (PCF) InterFrame Space (IFS) (PIFS) (Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) CAT2) back-off beforetransmission. Other categories of LBT may, and sometimes are, also used,as long as the alignment with the following TB frame is ensured. Thetype of channel sensing (LBT category) may also be, and sometimes is,identified within the “CS required” field in the Common Info.

The guest STA constructs the PHY header of the TB frame as follows. Theguest STA constructs the legacy portion of the TB frame using the sameattributes found in the legacy portion of the trigger frame,particularly the duration field in the L-SIG and RL-SIG. In someembodiments, the guest STA leaves the HE SIG-A field of the TB frameempty or constructs the HE SIG-A of the TB frame using the attributes inthe trigger frame.

The guest STA transmits the HE-STF in the leftover RUs only.

The same number of HE-LTF as indicated in the trigger frame istransmitted and on the leftover RUs only.

Then the MAC payload, with the same Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS)and MAC Protocol Data Unit (MPDU) size identified in the trigger frameis sent. If no MCS is identified for guest STA, then the same MCS of thehost STA is used. This is to allow the AP to decode the guest STAs'payload with similar receiver processes as in 11ax. But, it is possibleto allow variations if the AP can process the payload beyond 11axreceiver process, and some embodiments, in which the AP can process thepayload beyond 11ax receiver process, allow variations with regard toMCS. For example, a guest STA may use the +/−1 or +/−2 steps withrespect to the MCS identified by the host STA in the trigger frame. TheAP may attempt decoding the guest STA payload with each of these MCSs,e.g., when processing a received TB frame including information from ahost STA and one or more guest STAs.

An AP receiving such an uplink (UL) TB frame (UL TB frame in response toa Trigger Frame (Shared Transmission Type)) e.g., UL OrthogonalFrequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) TB frame, performs thefollowing. The AP processes the portion of the RUs belonging to theguest STAs as usual. The AP processes the portion of the RUs belongingto the guest STA(s) using the attributes (e.g., in the physical headeror in the individual STA portions) of the trigger frame sent by the hostSTA. These attributes include MCS, number of spatial streams, etc. TheAP may, and in some embodiments, does, provide ACK (for the host STA andguest STA(s) after the UL TB frame, e.g. UL OFDMA TB frame.

There may be, and sometimes are, collisions among multiple guest STAsusing the same RUs. To reduce the chance of collision, the AP may, andin some embodiments does, restrict using the host STAs' frame to alimited set of STAs, e.g., with low latency traffic, etc. If the APdetects collision among multiple guest STAs, the AP may, and in someembodiments, does indicate such in the following ACK frame in order forthe guest STA to perform a back-off. In some embodiments, a separate andnew backoff category may be identified such. This is in order to allow aguest STA to keep its original backoff for the respective accesscategory.

To enhance coexistence, in some embodiments, a guest STA may attempt touse the host TB frame only if the detected strength (e.g., ReceivedSignal Strength Indicator (RSSI)) of the host frame passes a threshold,e.g., a threshold configured by the AP or indicated in the Trigger framesent by the host STA. This reduces the chance of additional hiddennodes.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart 1400 of an exemplary method of operating a hoststation (STA), e.g., host STA 1 804 of FIG. 8, in accordance with anexemplary embodiment. Operation starts in step 1402 in which the hostSTA is powered on and initialized. Operation proceeds from step 1402 tostep 1404. In step 1404 the host STA decides for a shared transmission.Operation proceeds from step 1404 to step 1406. In step 1406 the hostSTA transmits a trigger frame with type=‘shared transmission’ andindicates within the trigger frame the resource units (RUs) availablefor sharing. Operation proceeds from step 1406 to step 1408. In step1408 the host STA transmits a trigger based (TB) frame, where no energyis transmitted in the shared resource units (RUs) neither on thecorresponding shared RUs in the (non-legacy) STF/LTF symbols. Operationproceeds from step 1408 to step 1410.

In step 1410 the host STA monitors for an ACK from the access point(AP). Step 1410 may, and sometimes does, include step 1412 in which thehost STA receives and ACK for the access point (AP) in response to thetransmitted TB frame.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart 1500 of an exemplary method of operating a gueststation (STA), e.g. guest STA 2 806 of FIG. 8, in accordance with anexemplary embodiment. Operation starts in step 1502 in which the guestSTA is powered on and initialized. Operation proceeds from start step1502 to step 1504. In step 1504 the guest STA monitors a channel todetect trigger frames. Step 1504 may, and sometimes does, include step1506 in which the guest STA detects a trigger frame. Operation proceedsfrom step 1506 to step 1508. In step 1508 the guest STA determines thetype of detected trigger frame, e.g., one of types of trigger frameslisted in table 900 of FIG. 9. Operation proceeds from step 1508 to step1510.

In step 1510 the guest STA determines if the detected trigger frametype=“shared transmission”. If the detected trigger frame type is sharedtransmission, then operation proceeds from step 1510 to step 1512.However, if the detected trigger frame type is not shared transmission,then operation proceeds from step 1510 to step 1514, in which the guestSTA is operated to follow existing procedures as to whether or not totransmit into the TB frame, and how the guest STA should transmit intothe TB frame when the guest STA should transmit into the TB frame, e.g.,with different existing procedures corresponding to different types oftrigger frames.

Retuning to step 1512, in step 1512 the guest STA identifies theattributes of the upcoming trigger-based (TB) frame from the triggerframe fields, e.g., the TB frame duration, the number of (non-legacy)STF/LTF symbols of the TB frame, and identifies resource units (RUs) ofall shared occasion. With the attributes of the upcoming trigger-basedframe having been identified, operation proceeds from step 1512 to step1515 in which the guest station generates a TB frame based on theidentified attributes. In some but not necessarily all embodiments step1515 includes generating at least one legacy symbol, said at least onelegacy symbol being a Legacy STF symbol, LTF symbol or SIG symbol andgenerating at least one non-legacy STF symbol or non-legacy LTF symbol.

Operation proceeds from step 1512 to step 1516.

In step 1516 the guest STA: transmits L-STF/LTF/SIG and RL-SIG based onthe attributes obtained from the trigger frame, transmits STF/LTF on theshared RUs of a TB frame, and transmits its payload on one or moreshared occasion RUs. Transmitting the generated trigger based frameincludes, in some embodiments transmitting the generated non-legacysymbol on the shared resources of the non-legacy STF or LTF portion ofthe generated trigger based frame (e.g. only transmits on the sharedresources of the non-legacy STF/LTF). Operation proceeds from step 1516to step 1518.

In step 1518 the guest STA monitors for an acknowledgment (ACK) from theaccess point (AP). Step 1518 may, and sometimes does, include step 1520in which the guest STA receives an ACK from the access point.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart 1600 of an exemplary method of operating anaccess point (AP), e.g., AP 802 of FIG. 8, in accordance with anexemplary embodiment. Operation starts in step 1602 in which the AP ispowered on and initialized. Operation proceeds from step 1602 to step1604.

In step 1604 the AP monitors a channel to detect trigger frame with oneof its advertised Basic Service Set Identifiers (BSSIDs). Step 1604 may,and sometimes does, include step 1606 in which the AP receives a triggerframe with one of its advertised BSSIDs. Operation proceeds from step1604 to step 1606.

In step 1606 the AP determines the type of the detected trigger frame,e.g., one of the various types of trigger frames included in table 900of FIG. 9. Operation proceeds from step 1608 to step 1610.

In step 1610 the AP determines if the detected trigger frametype=“shared transmission”. If the detected trigger frame type is sharedtransmission, then operation proceeds from step 1610 to step 1612.However, if the detected trigger frame type is not shared transmission,then operation proceeds from step 1610 to step 1614, in which the AP isoperated to follow existing procedure, e.g., with different existingprocedures corresponding to different types of trigger frames.

Retuning to step 1612, in step 1612 the AP identifies the attributes ofthe upcoming trigger-based (TB) frame from the trigger frame fields,e.g., the TB frame duration, the number of (non-legacy) STF/LTF symbolsof the TB frame, identifies RUs of host STA and identifies resourceunits (RUs) of all shared occasion. Operation proceeds from step 1612 tostep 1616.

In step 1616 the AP receives signals on the identified RUS. Operationproceeds from step 1616 to step 1618. In step 1618 the AP processes thesignals receives on the RUs of the host STA. Operation proceeds fromstep 1618 to step 1620. In step 1620 the AP processes the signalsreceived on the RUs of each shared occasion, e.g., each associated withone guest STA. Operation proceeds from step 1620 to step 1622.

In step 1622 the AP transmits ack frame(s) for the host STA ad/or guestSTA(s).

FIG. 17 includes a time frequency plot for each of an exemplary hoststation, guest station and an access point, for an example of resourcesharing in UL transmission in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.Drawing 1702 of FIG. 17 is a time frequency plot for a host STA inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment. Drawing 1704 of FIG. 17 is atime frequency plot for a guest STA, e.g., guest STA 1, in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment. Drawing 1706 of FIG. 17 is a timefrequency plot for an AP in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

Host STA time frequency plot 1702 includes a vertical axis 1702representing frequency and a horizontal axis 1703 representing time.Trigger frame 1708 is generated and sent, e.g. transmitted, by the hostSTA. Block 1709 represents the total resources the TB frame. Resourceunits 1710 and 1712 of the TB frame 1709 are used by the host STA, whichtransmits into those resources. RUs 1714 of the TB frame 1709 are leftfor potential guest STAs.

Guest STA time frequency plot 1704 includes a vertical axis 1702representing frequency and a horizontal axis 1703 representing time. Theguest STA receives and processes the trigger frame 1708. In step 1715the guest STA(s) use the attributes in the received trigger frame toconstruct the TB frame (1716). RUs 1718 of the TB frame 1709 are used bythe guest station 1 to transmit.

AP time frequency plot 1706 includes a vertical axis 1702 representingfrequency and a horizontal axis 1703 representing time. The AP receivesthe trigger frame transmitted by the host STA and recovers communicatedinformation, and the AP receives the TB frame and recovers thecommunicated information from the host STA and guest STA 1. In steps1720 and 1722 the AP uses the attributes in the trigger frame and/orSIG-A to process the Host STA RUs. In steps 1724 the AP uses theattributes in the trigger frame and/or SIG-A to process leftover RUs.The AP generates and sends, e.g., transmits, ACK frame 1726 to the hostSTA and to any guest STAs if detected.

FIG. 18 is a drawing of an exemplary TB frame 1800 generated andtransmitted by a guest STA in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.Exemplary TB frame 1800, generated and transmitted by a guest STA,includes a legacy preamble portion 1802, a HE preamble portion 1804 anda data portion 1806. Legacy preamble 1802 includes a 8 micro-sec L-STF,a 8 micro-sec L-LTF, and a 4 micro-sec L-SIG. HE preamble 1804 includesa 4 micro-sec RL-SIG, a 16 micro-sec HE-SIG-A, a 4 micro-sec HE-STF andone or more HE-LTF symbols (variable duration per HE-LTF symbol). Dataportion 1806 includes data and PE.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart 1900 of an exemplary method of operating a guestSTA, e.g., STA 2 806 of FIG. 8, in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment. Operation starts in step 1902 in which the guest STA ispowered on and initialized. Operation proceeds from 1902 to step 1904.In step 1904 the guest STA construct the legacy portion 1802 of the TBframe 1800 using the same attributes found in the legacy portion of thetrigger frame, particularly the duration field in L-SIG and RL-SIG.Operation proceeds from step 1904 to step 1906. In step 1906 the guestSTA is controlled to leave the HE-SIG-A portion of the TB frame empty orto construct this signal using the attributes in the trigger frame andtransmit the HE-SIG-A. Operation proceeds from step 1906 to step 1908.In step 1908 the guest STA transmits the HE-STF in the leftover RUs.Operation proceeds from step 1908 to step 1910. In step 1910 the guestSTA transmits the same number of HE-LTF as indicated in the triggerframe, and on the leftover RUs only.

In another aspect, in some embodiments, the guest STA may, and sometimesdoes, transmit a wideband (e.g., channel BW>20 MHz) frame, where some ofthe RUs overlap with unused RUs announced by the host STA. This featureassumes that the guest STA performs LBT on the RUs that do not overlapwith the trigger frame resources.

FIG. 20 includes a time frequency plot 2000 illustrating an exemplarytrigger frame and a corresponding TB frame in accordance with anexemplary embodiment, and a time frequency plot 2050 illustrate resourceunits (RUs) used by exemplary guest STA1 in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment.

Time frequency plot 2000 includes vertical axis 2001 representingfrequency and horizontal axis 2003 representing time. Block 2002represents a trigger frame (of type Shared Transmission) which hisgenerated and transmitted by a host STA. Block 2005 represents theresources of the corresponding TB frame 2005. The TB frame 2005 includesRUs used by the host STA 2002 and RUs left for potential guest STAs2004.

Time frequency plot 2050 includes vertical axis 2001 representingfrequency and horizontal axis 2003 representing time. Block 2008identifies RUs used by a guest STA1 in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment. Guest STA 1 transmits into a wideband (e.g., channel>20 MHz)frame where some of the RUs overlap with unused RUs announced by thehost STA.

FIG. 21 includes a time frequency plot 2100 illustrating an exemplarytrigger frame and a corresponding TB frame in accordance with anexemplary embodiment, and a time frequency plot 2250 illustrating thetrigger frame, resource units of the TB frame used by the host STA andresource units (RUs) used by exemplary guest STA1 (including some RUs ofthe TB frame and some RUs outside the TB frame) in accordance with anexemplary embodiment.

Drawing 2100 is a copy of drawing 2000 of FIG. 20, which is included forcomparison to drawing 2150. Time frequency plot 2150 includes verticalaxis 2001 representing frequency and horizontal axis 2003 representingtime. Block 2002 represents the trigger frame (of type SharedTransmission) which his generated and transmitted by the host STA. Block2004 represents the resources of the corresponding TB frame 2005 whichare used by the host STA. Block 2008 identifies RUs used by the guestSTA1 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. Guest STA 1 transmitsinto a wideband (e.g., channel>20 MHz) frame where some of the RUsoverlap with unused RUs announced by the host STA. The guest STA usesthe attributes in the trigger frame 2002 to construct the TB frame. Theguest STA performs LBT on the RUs of block 2008 that do not overlap withthe trigger frame resources. Block 2009 represents the combinedresources of RUs 2004 used by the host STA and the RUs 2008 used byguest STA 1.

An exemplary embodiment of medium sharing using MU transmission will nowbe described. Medium sharing is possible, and implemented in someembodiments, between a host STA and guest STAs using MY PPDU format.

A host STA may, and sometimes does, initiated a MU PPDU transmission,where the number of spatial streams used by the host STA is less thanthe maximum spatial streams of the AP. The remaining spatial stream(s)of the AP may be, and sometimes are used for transmission by other guestSTAs.

In a divergence for the 802.11ax structure of HE MU PPDUs, to enablemedium sharing using MU PPDUs, the HE-STF, is repeated once or more(depending upon the number of guest STAs allowed). FIG. 22 shows a novelfirst modified HE MU format PPDU 2200, e.g., modified from HE MU PPDU208 of FIG. 2, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. Exemplary HEMU PPDU 2200 includes a modification to allow sharing medium in ULtransmission by a host STA. A variable number of 4 micro-sec HE-STFs areincluded in the novel HE MU format PPDU 2200 of FIG. 22, with the numberof HE-STFs depending upon the number of Guest STAs allowed, as indicatedby information 2202. This is in contrast to the 802.11ax HE MU formatPPDU 208 of FIG. 2 which only includes one 4 micro-sec HE-STF.

In another modification, included in some embodiments, to enable fulluse of MCS by guest STAs, HE-SIG-A is repeated as many times asHE-SIG-A, where the first HE-SIG-A is transmitted by the host STA andthe remaining HE-SIG-A are transmitted by guest STAs. FIG. 23 is drawingillustrating an exemplary second modified HE MU format PPDU 2300 inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment, which is used, which his usedin UL medium sharing by a host STA using MU transmission and enablesfull use of MCS by guest STAs. In second modified HE MU format PPDU2300, in addition to the modification shown in FIG. 22, there are avariable number of 8 micro-sec HE-SIG-As depending upon the number ofguest STAs allowed, as indicated by information 2302. This is incontrast to the 802.11ax HE MU format PPDU 208 of FIG. 2 which onlyincludes one 8 micro-sec HE-SIG-A.

Note that a MU PPDU may be shared by several guest STAs, where a guestSTA chooses an order, e.g., j., within the max allowed guest STAs, andtransmits on the jth HE-SIG-A and HE-STF and HE-LTF, etc.

An instance of such sharing as follows: i) the host STA may use severalspatial streams and indicates so in the trigger frame, however, ii) eachguest STA is allowed to use only on spatial stream, hence transmittingonly on the jth HE-LTF, If no collision occurs among the guest STAs,such case allows multiple guest STAs to transmit using the same host MUPPDU.

In a divergence from the 802.11ax transmit/receive processing for the HEMU PPDUs: a trigger frame precedes a MU PPDU, where the host STAidentifies within the trigger frame: i) the availability of a host MUPPDU, ii) maximum number of guests allowed, hence max number of STF,iii) maximum number of LTF, and indicating the number of LTFs left forguest STAs, etc.

After the trigger frame, within the MU frame: i) the host STA transmitsthe first STF and transmits no energy on the remaining STFs, ii) thehost STA transmits the LTF needed for processing its own frame andtransmits no energy on the remaining LTFS, which are left for thepotential guest STAs.

After receiving the trigger frame, a guest STA, as in the firstexemplary embodiment (previously described), transmits L-STF/L-LTF/L-SIGand RL-SIG based on the attributes found in the trigger frame. The guestSTA transmits the MU frame with no energy on the first STF and transmitsSTF on the relevant STF. The guest STA transmits no energy on LTFsrelevant to the host STA and transmits on the allowed leftover LTFs.Similar to the first exemplary embodiment, a guest STA may use the MCSand frame duration identified in the trigger frame by the host STA or arestricted set of MCSs, e.g., the MCS indicated in the trigger frame+/−1 or 2 steps.

An AP receiving a trigger frame followed by such MU frame performs thefollowing: i) processes the trigger frame and separates the STF/LTFs todecode the individual layers with the following MU frame, ii) processesthe portion of layers belonging to the host STA as usual, but using onlythe relevant STF/LTFs, iii) processes the layers belonging to the guestSTA using the attributes found in the physical header of the triggerframe send by the host STA, and using only the relevant leftoverSTF/LTFs.

FIG. 24, comprising the combination of FIG. 24A, FIG. 24B and FIG. 24C,is a flowchart 2400 of an exemplary method of operating a first wirelessstation (STA) in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. Operationstarts in step 2402 in which the first wireless station is powered onand initialized. Operation proceeds from start step 2402 to step 2404.In step 2404 the first wireless station is operated as a host stationduring a first time period. Step 2404 includes steps 2406, 2408, 2410,2412, 2414, 2418, 2430 and 2422.

In step 2406 the first wireless station makes a decision to make one ormore transmission units acquired by the first wireless station (e.g., bysuccessfully completing a listen before talk and acquiring the right totransmit or through other means such as by a resource grant to the hoststation) available for use by one or more of the other wireless stationsduring a first frame time period. In some embodiments, the first frametime period is a time period corresponding to a first trigger basedframe. In some embodiments, said decision to make one or moretransmission resources acquired by the first wireless station availablefor use by one or more other wireless stations a during a first frametime period is a decision to participate in a shared transmission inwhich the host station will allow one or more wireless stations tooperate as guest stations and use at least some of the sharedtransmission resources in the first trigger based frame while the firstwireless stations exclusively uses one or more other resource units ofthe first trigger based frame to communicate data to a first accesspoint. Operation proceeds from step 2406 to step 2408.

In step 2408, the first wireless station selects, based on the amount ofdata to be transmitted by the first wireless station during the firsttrigger based frame, a subset of resource units in said first triggerbased frame to be used exclusively by the first wireless station.Operation proceeds from step 2408 to step 2410.

In step 2410 the first wireless station designates one or more subsetsof resource units in said first trigger based frame to be shared, eachof said designated subsets of resource units being a shared set ofresource units. Operation proceeds from step 2410 to step 2412.

In step 2412 the first wireless station transmits a first trigger basedframe including a type indicator indicating that the trigger frame is ashared transmission type of trigger frame and information identifyingone or more sets of shared resource units, e.g., where shared resourceunits are resource units that are available for sharing and are thusavailable for use by other wireless stations.

In some embodiments, said information identifying one or more sets ofshared resource units explicitly identifies resource units (e.g., byincluding one or more resource unit identifiers) of a first triggerbased frame, corresponding to the first trigger frame, which are to beused as shared resource units.

In some embodiments, said information identifying one or more sets ofshared resource units identifies non-shared resource units of a firsttrigger based frame, corresponding to the first trigger frame, remainingunits in the first trigger based frame beyond the non-shared resourceunits being shared resource units. Thus in this case, the informationimplicitly identifies the shared resource units by explicitlyidentifying the non-shared resource units with the understanding thatthe omitted resource units are to be shared).

In some embodiments, said information identifying one or more sets ofshared resources units includes information which explicitly identifiesone or more sets of shared resource units which may be used by guestwireless stations. In some such embodiments, said information explicitlyidentifying one or more sets of shared resource units which may be usedby guest wireless stations includes one of more sets of guestinformation, each set of guest information including a resource unit(RU) allocation field indicating a set of shared resource units, eachset of guest information being communicated in a Guest User Info fieldof a User Info List field of the first trigger frame. In some suchembodiments, said User Info List field of the first trigger frameincludes a Host User Info field and one or more Guest User Info fields.

In some embodiments, said information which can be used to identify oneor more sets of shared resources units includes information identifyingthe total resources of the trigger based frame and informationidentifying the resource units of the trigger based frame which thefirst wireless station (acting as a host station) has reserved for itsown use. For example, there is a single set of shared resource units inthe first trigger based (TB) frame which may be used by a guest STA,where the single set of shared resource units is implicitly communicatedby the host STA, which sends information in the first trigger frameidentifying the total resource units of the first TB frame (e.g., in acommon information field of the first trigger frame) and resource unitsof the first TB frame allocated by the host STA to the host STA (e.g.,communicated in a host user info field of an user info list field of thefirst trigger frame), with guest STAs and the access point (AP)determining the single set of available guest STA resource units, e.g.,by calculating: single set of guest STA resource units=total resourceunits for TB frame−resource units allocated by the host STA to the hostSTA.) In some such embodiments, the information identifying the resourceunits of the trigger based frame which the first wireless station hasreserved for its own use is communicated in a RU allocation field of aHost User Info field of a User Info List field of the first triggerframe. In some such embodiments, the User Info List field of the firsttrigger frame includes a Host User Info field but does not include anyguest User Info fields. In some such embodiments, resource units of thetrigger based frame corresponding to the first trigger frame which arenot identified in the User Info List field of the first trigger frameare available for use as shared resource units.

Operation proceeds from step 2412 to step 2414. In step 2414 the firstwireless station transmits a first trigger based (TB) frame including aplurality of resource units, transmitting said first trigger based frameincluding transmitting energy on some but not all of the resource unitsin said first trigger based frame. Step 2414 includes step 2416. In step2416 the first wireless station transmits energy on at least oneresource unit in said first trigger based frame while not transmittingany energy on the shared resource units identified by the information inthe first trigger frame. Operation proceeds from step 2414 to step 2418.

In step 2418 the first wireless station monitors for an acknowledgementform a first access point to which the first trigger based frame wastransmitted. Operation proceeds from step 2418 to step 2420.

In step 2420 the first wireless station receives a first acknowledgmentform the first access point corresponding to the first trigger basedframe. In some embodiments, the first acknowledgment includes anindication whether data was successfully received from the host stationon one or more resource units on which the host station transmittedenergy. Operation proceeds from step 2420 to step 2422.

In step 2422 the first wireless station processes the firstacknowledgment to determine if data transmitted in the resource units insaid first trigger based frame on which the first wireless stationtransmitted energy was successfully received without checking todetermine if the first access point successfully received data in theshared resource units for the first trigger based frame. Operationproceeds from step 2404, via connecting node A 2424, to step 2426.

In step 2426 the first wireless station is operated to act as a gueststation during a second time period. Step 2426 includes steps 2428,2430, 2433, 2434, 2442, 2444, 2448, 2452, 2458, 2460 and 2462.

In step 2428 the first wireless station receives a second trigger framefrom another wireless station. Operation proceeds from step 2428 to step2430. In step 2430 the first wireless station determines that a secondtrigger based frame corresponding to the second trigger frame includesone or more sets of shared resource units that are available for use bythe first wireless station. Step 2430 includes step 2432, in which thefirst wireless station determines that a type indicator in said receivedsecond trigger frame indicates that the trigger frame is a sharedtransmission type of trigger frame. Operation proceeds from step 2430 tostep 2433.

In step 2433 the first wireless station identifies attributes of thesecond trigger based frame from the trigger frame fields included in thesecond trigger frame. Operation proceeds from step 2433 to one of step2432 and step 2448, e.g., depending upon the particular implementedembodiment and/or depending upon whether or not a only a single set ofshared resources is available to be used by a guest station. In someembodiments, information about each set of shared resources, which arebeing made available to a guest STA is communicated explicitly in thesecond trigger frame and operation proceeds from step 2433 to step 2434.In some embodiments, when there is only one set of shared resource beingmade available to a guest STA, the information about the single set ofshared resources being made available to a guest STA is communicatedimplicitly and operation proceeds from step 2433 to step 2448; however,if there is more than one set of shared resource beings made availableto guest STAs, then the information about each set of shared resources,which are being made available to a guest STA, is communicatedexplicitly in the second trigger frame and operation proceeds from step2433 to step 2434.

In step 2434 the first wireless station identifies the shared resourceunits corresponding to each of one or more sets of shared resource unitsin said second trigger based frame. In some embodiments, said secondtrigger frame includes a User Info List field including a Host User Infofield and one or more Guest User Info fields. Step 2434 includes step2436 in which the first wireless station identifies one or more sets ofshared resource units in said second trigger based frame. Step 2436includes step 2438 in which the first wireless station identifies a setof shared resource units in said second trigger based frame. Step 2438includes step 2440 in which the first wireless station recoversinformation identifying a set of shared resource units from informationincluded in the second trigger frame including information from aresource unit (RU) allocation field of a guest user information field ofa user information list field of the second trigger frame Step 2438 isperformed one or more times, e.g. one iteration of step 2438 for eachset of shared resource units to be made available to guest stations.Operation proceeds from step 2434 to step 2442 or step 2444, e.g.,depending upon the number of sets of shared resources units to be madeavailable to guest stations. In some embodiments, said second triggerbased frame includes two or more sets of shared resource units. If thereare two or more sets of sets of shared resources units to be madeavailable to guest wireless stations, then operation proceeds from step2434 to step 2442, in which the first wireless station selects one of aplurality of identified sets of shared resources units as the sharedresource units to be used by the first wireless station. In someembodiments, the first wireless station is allowed to, and sometimesdoes, select multiple sets of shared resources units in said pluralityof identified sets of shared resources units as the shared resourceunits to be used by the first wireless station.

Returning to step 2444, in step 2444 the first wireless stationdetermines that only a single set of shared resource is available to beused by a guest station in the second trigger based frame. Step 2444includes step 2446 in which the first wireless station determines thatonly one set of guest user information in a guest user information fieldin a user information list field of the second trigger frame wasreceived.

Returning to step 2448, in step 2448 the first wireless stationdetermines that only a single set of shared resources is available to beused by a guest station in the second trigger based frame. Step 2448includes step 2450, in which the first wireless station determines thatthe first wireless station received a set of host user information in ahost user information field of a user information list field of thesecond trigger frame without receiving any guest user information fieldsin the user information list field of the second trigger frame.Operation proceeds from step 2450 to step 2452.

In step 2452 the first wireless station determines the single set ofshared resources that are available to be used by a guest station in thesecond trigger based frame from received information identifying thetotal resources of the second trigger based frame and informationidentifying the resource units of the second trigger based frame whichthe another wireless station has reserved for its own use. Step 2452includes step 2454 in which the first wireless station identifies thesingle set of shared resources as the resources left over after removingthe identified resource units of the second trigger based frame whichthe another wireless station (host station) has reserved for its own usefrom the total resource units of the second trigger based frame.

Operation proceeds from step 2442, step 2444 or step 2452, viaconnecting node B 2456 to step 2458. In step 2458 the first wirelessstation transmits data to the first access point in at least one of theone or more sets of shared resource units in the second trigger basedframe. Operation proceeds from step 2458 to step 2460. In step 2460 thefirst wireless station receives a second acknowledgment from the firstaccess point indicating whether or not the first access pointsuccessfully received data transmitted by the first wireless stationusing one or more shared resource units included in the second triggerbased frame. Operation proceeds from step 2460 to step 2462. In step2462 the first wireless station determines from the received secondacknowledgment if any of the data transmitted by the first wirelessstation in a shared resource unit was not successfully received.

FIG. 25 is a drawing of an exemplary wireless communications system 2500in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. Exemplary communicationssystem 2500 includes a plurality of access point (AP 1 2502, AP2 2504,AP3 2506, AP4 2508, . . . , APM 2510), each with a correspondingwireless coverage area (2503, 2505, 2507, 2509, . . . , 25111),respectively, a network node 2448, and a plurality of wireless stations(STAs) (STA 1 2512, STA 2 2514, STA 3 2516, STA 4 2518, STA 5 2520, STA6 2522, STA 7 2524, STA 8 2526, STA 9 2528, STA 10 2530, STA 11, 2532,STA 12 2534, STA 13 2536, STA 14 2538, STA 15 2540, STA 16 2542, STA 172544, . . . , STA n 2546). The access points (2502, 2504, 2506, 2508,2510) are coupled to the network node 2548 via communications links(2550, 2552, 2554, 2556), respectively. The network node 2548 is coupledto other network nodes and/or the Internet. The wireless coverage areaof one access point in system 2500 may be non-overlapping, partiallyoverlapping or fully overlapping with the wireless coverage area ofanother access point in the system 2500. The wireless stations may be,and some are, mobile devices which may move throughout the system 2500.In FIG. 25, stations (STA 1 2512, STA 2 2514 and STA 3 2516) are shownto be within the wireless coverage area 2503 of access point 1 2502. InFIG. 25, stations (STA 4 2518, STA 5 2520, STA 6 2522 and STA 7 2524)are shown to be within the wireless coverage area 2505 of access point 22504. In FIG. 25, stations (STA 8 2526, STA 9 2528 and STA 10 2530) areshown to be within the wireless coverage area 2507 of access point 32506. In FIG. 25, stations (STA 12 2534, STA 13 2536, STA 14 2538 andSTA 15 2540) are shown to be within the wireless coverage area 2509 ofaccess point 4 2508. In FIG. 25, stations (STA 16 2542, STA 17 2544 andSTA n 2546) are shown to be within the wireless coverage area 2511 ofaccess point M 2510. A wireless station, e.g., any of stations (STA 12512, STA 2 2514, STA 3 2516, STA 4 2518, STA 5 2520, STA 6 2522, STA 72524, STA 8 2526, STA 9 2528, STA 10 2530, STA 11, 2532, STA 12 2534,STA 13 2536, STA 14 2538, STA 15 2540, STA 16 2542, STA 17 2544, . . . ,STA n 2546), may act as a host station, e.g., transmitting sharedresource type trigger frames and transmitting data using host resourceunits of a corresponding TB frame, during some time intervals and act asa guest station, e.g., receiving a shared resource type trigger frameand transmitting data using shared guest resource units of acorresponding TB frame during other time intervals.

FIG. 26 is a drawing of an exemplary wireless station (STA) 2600 inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment. Exemplary wireless station 2600is, e.g., the first wireless station implementing the method offlowchart 2400 of FIG. 24, any of the wireless stations of system 2500of FIG. 25, and/or any of the wireless stations described with respectto any FIGS. 8-25 and FIG. 27. Exemplary wireless STA 2600 includes aprocessor 2602, e.g., a CPU, a wireless interface 2604, a networkinterface 2606, an assembly of hardware components 2608, e.g., anassembly of circuits, am optional Subscribed Identity Module (SIM) card2609, an I/O interface 2610 and a memory 2612 coupled together via a bus2614 over which the various elements may interchange data andinformation. Exemplary wireless STA 2600 further includes a pluralityI/O devices (speaker 2634, camera 2644, switches 2636, mouse 2638,display 2642, e.g., a touch screen display, keyboard/keypad 2640,microphone 2646 and additional devices(s) and/or sensor(s) 2647 coupledto the I/O interface 2610. Network interface 2606, e.g., a wired oroptical interface, includes a receiver 2618 and a transmitter 2620. Insome embodiments the receiver 2618 and transmitter 2620 are include aspart of a transceiver 2616, e.g., a transceiver chip.

Wireless interface 2604 includes a wireless receiver 2622 coupled to oneor more receive antennas (2626, . . . , 2628) via which the wirelessstation 2600 receives wireless signals including, e.g., a grant ofuplink resources from an access point, a shared resources type triggerframe from another STA, and an acknowledgment from an access point.Wireless interface 2604 includes a wireless transmitter 2624 coupled toone or more transmit antennas (2630, . . . , 2632) via which thewireless station 2600 transmits wireless signals including, e.g., ashared resources type trigger frame, a trigger based frame includingdata on resource units self-allocated to the wireless station whileacting as a host STA, and a trigger based frame including data on sharedresource units allowed to be used by guest STAs while acting as a guestSTA. In some embodiments, the wireless interface 2604 includes multiplereceivers and multiple transmitters. In some embodiments, one or more ofthe same antennas are used for both transmit and receive. In someembodiments, the wireless station supports MIMO operations.

Memory 2612 includes an assembly of components 2648, e.g., an assemblyof software components, e.g., an assembly of software routines and/orsoftware modules, and data/information 2650. Data information 2650includes a trigger type subfield encoding table including a “sharedtransmission” type trigger frame, e.g., trigger type subfield encodingtable 900 of FIG. 9, a stored predetermined value, e.g., the 12 bitvalue=000000000000, to be used in an AID12 subfield of a guestinformation field of a shared transmission type trigger frame 2654,information defining the format(s) for user information field(s) in auser information list field of a shared transmission type trigger frame,a generated first shared transmission type trigger frame 2658, which wasgenerated by the wireless station while acting as a host STA, agenerated first TB frame 2660 (corresponding to the first sharedtransmission trigger frame) to be transmitted by the wireless stationwhile acting as a host STA, a received second shared transmission typetrigger frame 2662, which was received by the wireless station whileacting as a guest STA, a generated second TB frame 2664 (correspondingto the second shared transmission type trigger frame) to be transmittedby the wireless station while acting as a guest STA,

FIG. 27 is a drawing of an exemplary access point (AP) 2700 inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment. Exemplary access point 2700 is,e.g., the access point described with respect to flowchart 2400 of FIG.24, any of the access points (2502, 2504, 2506, 2508, . . . , 2510) ofsystem 2500 of FIG. 25, and/or an access point described with respect toany of FIGS. 8-26.

Exemplary access point 2700 includes a processor 2702, e.g., a CPU, awireless interface 2704, a network interface 2706, an assembly ofhardware components 2708, e.g., an assembly of circuits, an optional SIMcard 2709, an I/O interface 2710, and memory 2712 coupled together via abus 2714 over which the various elements may interchange data andinformation.

Access point 2700 further includes a plurality of I/O devices (speaker2738, switches 2740, mouse 2742, keyboard/keypad 2744, and display 2746,e.g., touch screen display, coupled to I/O interface 2710. Networkinterface 2706, e.g., a wired or optical interface, includes a receiver2722 and a transmitter 2724. In some embodiments, the receiver 2722 andtransmitter 2724 as included as part of a transceiver 2720, e.g., atransceiver chip. The network interface 2706 couples the access point2700 to other network nodes and/or the Internet. Wireless interface 2704includes a wireless receiver 2726 and a wireless transmitter 2728.Wireless transmitter 2728 is coupled to a plurality of transmit antennas(2734, . . . , 2736) via which the access point transmits downlinksignals to wireless stations including resource allocations, downlinkdata signals, and acknowledgments, e.g. acknowledgments to TB framesfrom host STAs and guest STAs. Wireless receiver 2726 is coupled to aplurality of receive antennas (2730, . . . , 2732) via which the accesspoint receive signals from wireless stations including shared resourcetype trigger frames from host STAs, a TB frame (corresponding to ashared resource type trigger frame) from host STA including data on hostuser resource units, and a TB frame (corresponding to a shared resourcetype trigger frame) from a guest STA including data on shared resourceunits.

Memory 2712 includes an assembly of components 2716, e.g., an assemblyof software components, and data/information 2718.

FIG. 28, comprising the combination of FIG. 28A, FIG. 28B and FIG. 28C,is a drawing of an exemplary assembly of components 2800, comprising thecombination of Part A 2801, Part B 2803 and Part C 2805, which may beincluded in a wireless station, e.g. wireless station 2600, e.g., afirst wireless station, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.Exemplary assembly of components 2800 may be, and sometimes is, includedin an exemplary wireless station, e.g., exemplary wireless station 2600,e.g., the first wireless station implementing the method of flowchart2400 of FIG. 24, any of the wireless stations of system 2500 of FIG. 25,and/or any of the wireless stations described with respect to any FIGS.8-25 and FIG. 27. The components in the assembly of components 2800 canbe, and in some embodiments are, implemented fully in hardware withinthe processor 2602, e.g., as individual circuits. The components in theassembly of components 2800 can, and in some embodiments are,implemented fully in hardware within the assembly of components 2608,e.g., as individual circuits corresponding to the different components.In other embodiments some of the components are implemented, e.g., ascircuits, within the processor 2602 with other components beingimplemented, e.g., as circuits within assembly of components 2608,external to and coupled to the processor 2602. As should be appreciatedthe level of integration of components on the processor and/or with somecomponents being external to the processor may be one of design choice.Alternatively, rather than being implemented as circuits, all or some ofthe components may be implemented in software and stored in the memory2612 of the wireless station 2600 with the components controllingoperation of the wireless station to implement the functionscorresponding to the components when the components are executed by aprocessor, e.g., processor 2602. In some such embodiments, the assemblyof components 2800 is included in the memory 2612 as assembly ofcomponents 2648. In still other embodiments, various components inassembly of components 2800 are implemented as a combination of hardwareand software, e.g., with another circuit external to the processorproviding input to the processor 2602 which then under software controloperates to perform a portion of a component's function. While processor2602 is shown in the FIG. 26 embodiment as a single processor, e.g.,computer, it should be appreciated that the processor 2602 may beimplemented as one or more processors, e.g., computers.

When implemented in software the components include code, which whenexecuted by the processor 2602, configure the processor 2602 toimplement the function corresponding to the component. In embodimentswhere the assembly of components 2800 is stored in the memory 2612, thememory 2612 is a computer program product comprising a computer readablemedium comprising code, e.g., individual code for each component, forcausing at least one computer, e.g., processor 2602, to implement thefunctions to which the components correspond.

Completely hardware based or completely software based components may beused. However, it should be appreciated that any combination of softwareand hardware, e.g., circuit implemented components may be used toimplement the functions. As should be appreciated, the componentsillustrated in FIG. 28 control and/or configure the wireless station2600, or elements therein such as the processor 2602, to perform thefunctions of corresponding steps illustrated and/or described in themethod of one or more of the flowcharts, signaling diagrams and/ordescribed with respect to any of the Figures. Thus the assembly ofcomponents 2800 includes various components that perform functions ofcorresponding one or more described and/or illustrated steps of anexemplary method, e.g., steps of the method of flowchart 2400 of FIG. 24and/or described or shown with respect to any of the other figures.

Assembly of components 2800 includes a component 2804 configured tooperate the first wireless station during a first time period as a hoststation and a component 2826 configured to operate the first wirelessstation during a second time period to act as a guest station.

Component 2804 includes a component 2806 configured to make a decisionto make one or more transmission requires acquired by the first wirelessstation available for use by one or more other wireless station during afirst time period, a component 2808 configured to select, based on theamount of data to be transmitted by the first wireless station duringthe first trigger based frame, a subset of resource units in said firsttrigger based frame to be used exclusively by the first wirelessstation, a component 2810 configured to designate one or more subsets ofresource units in said first trigger based frame to be shared, each ofsaid designed subsets of resource units being a shared set of resourceunits, a component 2812 configured to operate the first wireless stationto transmit a first trigger frame including a type indicator indicatingthat the trigger frame is a shared transmission type of trigger frameand information identifying one or more sets of shared resource units,and a component 2814 configured to operate the first wireless station totransmit a first trigger based frame corresponding to the first triggerframe, said first trigger based (TB) frame including a plurality ofresource units, transmitting said first trigger based frame includingtransmitting energy on some but not all of the resource units in saidfirst trigger based frame. Component 2814 includes a component 2816configured to operate the first wireless station to transmit energy onat least one resource unit in said firsts trigger based frame while nottransmitting any energy on the shared resource units identified by theinformation in the first trigger frame.

Component 2804 further includes a component 2818 configured to monitorfor an acknowledgement from a first access point to which the firsttrigger based frame was transmitted, a component 2820 configured tooperate the first wireless station to receive a first acknowledgmentfrom the first access point corresponding to the first trigger basedframe, and a component 2822 configured to process the firstacknowledgment to determine if data transmitted in the resource units insaid first trigger based frame on which the first wireless stationtransmitted energy was successfully received without checking todetermine if the first access point successfully received data in theshared resource units for the first trigger based frame.

Component 2826 includes a component 2828 configured to operate the firstwireless station to receive a second trigger frame from another wirelessstation, and a component 2830 configured to determine that a secondtrigger based frame corresponding to the second trigger frame includesone or more sets of shared resource units that are available for use bythe first wireless station. Component 2830 includes a component 2832configured to determine that a type indicator in said received secondtrigger frame indicates that the trigger frame is a shared transmissiontype of trigger frame. Component 2826 further includes a component 2833configured to identify attributes of the second trigger based frame fromthe trigger frame fields included in the second trigger frame, and acomponent 2834 configured to identify the shared resource unitscorresponding to each of one or more sets of shared resource units insaid second trigger based frame. Component 2834 includes a component2836 configured to identify one or more sets of shared resource units insaid second trigger based frame. Component 2836 includes a component2840 configured to recover information identifying a set of sharedresource units form a resource unit (RU) allocation field of a guestuser information field of a user information list field of the secondtrigger frame.

Component 2826 further includes a component 2848 configured to determinethat only a single set of shared resource is available to be used by aguest station in the second trigger based frame. Component 2848 includesa component 2850 configured to determine that the first wireless stationreceived a set of host user information in a host user information fieldof the second trigger frame without receiving any guest user informationfields in the user information list field of the second trigger frame.

Component 2826 further includes a component 2852 configured to determinethe singe set of shared resource that are available to be used by aguest station in the second trigger based frame from receivedinformation identifying the total resources of the second trigger basedframe and information identifying the resource units of the secondtrigger based frame which the another wireless station has reserved forits own use. Component 2852 includes a component 2854 configured toidentify the single set of shared resources as the resources left overafter removing the identified resource units of the second trigger basedframe which the another user has reserved for its own use from the totalresource units of the second trigger based frame.

Component 2826 further includes a component 2842 configured to selectone of a plurality of identified sets of shared resource unit to be usedby the first wireless station, and a component 2844 configured todetermine that only a single set of shared resources is available to beused by a guest station in the second trigger based frame. Component2844 includes a component 2846 configured to determine that only one setof guest user information in a guest user information field in a userinformation list field of the second trigger frame was received.

Component 2826 further includes a component 2856 configured to operatethe first wireless station to transmit data to first access point in atleast one of the one or more sets of shared resource units in the secondtrigger based frame, a component 2860 configured to operate the firstwireless station to received a second acknowledgment form the firstaccess point indicating whether or not the first access pointsuccessfully received data transmitted by the first wireless stationusing one or more shared resource units included in the second triggerbased frame, and a component 2862 configured to determine from thereceived second acknowledgement if any of the data transmitted by thefirst wireless station in a shared resource unit was not successfullyreceived.

NUMBERED LIST OF EXEMPLARY METHOD EMBODIMENTS

Method Embodiment 1 A method of operating a first wireless station, themethod comprising: during a first time period, operating (2404) thefirst wireless station to act as a host station, operating as a hoststation including: making a decision (2406) to make one or moretransmission resources acquired by the first wireless station (e.g., bysuccessfully completing a listen before talk and acquiring the right totransmit or through other means such as by a resource grant to the hoststation) available for use by one or more other wireless stations aduring a first frame time period; transmitting a first trigger frame(2412) including a type indicator indicating that the trigger frame is ashared transmission type of trigger frame and information identifyingone or more sets of shared resource units (e.g., where shared resourceunits are resource units that are available for sharing and are thusavailable for use by other wireless stations); and transmitting (2414) afirst trigger based (TB) frame corresponding to the first trigger frame,said first trigger based frame including a plurality of resource units,transmitting the first trigger based frame including transmitting energyon some but not all of the resource units in said first trigger basedframe.

Method Embodiment 2 The method of Method Embodiment 1, wherein saidinformation identifying one or more sets of shared resource unitsexplicitly identifies resource units (e.g., by including one or moreresource unit identifiers) of a first trigger based frame, correspondingto the first trigger frame, which are to be used as shared resourceunits.

Method Embodiment 3 The method of Method Embodiment 1, wherein saidinformation identifying one or more sets of shared resource unitsidentifies non-shared resource units of a first trigger based frame,corresponding to the first trigger frame, remaining units in the firsttrigger based frame beyond the non-shared resource units being sharedresource units (thus in this case the information implicitly identifiesthe shared resource units by explicitly identify the non-shared resourceunits with the understanding that the omitted resource units are to beshared).

Method Embodiment 4 The method of Method Embodiment 1, wherein saidfirst frame time period is the time period of the first trigger basedframe.

Method Embodiment 5 The method of Method Embodiment 1, wherein saidinformation identifying one or more sets of shared resources unitsincludes information which explicitly identifies one or more sets ofshared resource units which may be used by guest wireless stations.

Method Embodiment 6 The method of Method Embodiment 5, wherein saidinformation explicitly identifying one or more sets of shared resourceunits which may be used by guest wireless stations includes one of moresets of guest information, each set of guest information including a RUallocation field indicating a set of shared resource units, each set ofguest information being communicated in a Guest User Info field of aUser Info List field of the first trigger frame.

Method Embodiment 7 The method of Method Embodiment 6, wherein said UserInfo List field of the first trigger frame includes a Host User Infofield and one or more Guest User Info fields.

Method Embodiment 8 The method of Method Embodiment 7, wherein each ofone or more guest information fields in the first trigger frame includesan AID12 field with its AID12 field value being a predetermined value.

Method Embodiment 9 The method of Method Embodiment 6, wherein saidAID12 field value, which is used in each guest information field of thefirst trigger frame, equals 000000000000.

Method Embodiment 10 The method of Method Embodiment 1, wherein saidinformation which can be used to identify one or more sets of sharedresources units includes information identifying the total resources ofthe trigger based frame and information identifying the resource unitsof the trigger based frame which the first wireless station has reservedfor its own use. (There is a single set of shared resource units in thefirst TB frame which may be used by a guest STA, where the single set ofshared resource units is implicitly communicated by the host STA, whichsends information in the first trigger frame identifying the totalresource units of the first TB frame and resource units of the first TBframe allocated by the host STA to the host STA, with guest STAs and APdetermining the single set of available guest STA resource units, e.g.,by calculating: single set of guest STA resource units=total resourceunits for TB frame−resource units allocated by the host STA to the hostSTA.)

Method Embodiment 11 The method of Method Embodiment 10, wherein theinformation identifying the resource units of the trigger based framewhich the first wireless station has reserved for its own use iscommunicated in a RU allocation field of a Host User Info field of aUser Info List field of the first trigger frame.

Method Embodiment 12 The method of Method Embodiment 11, wherein theUser Info List field of the first trigger frame includes a Host UserInfo field but does not include any guest User Info fields.

Method Embodiment 13 The method of Method Embodiment 12 wherein resourceunits of the trigger based frame corresponding to the first triggerframe which are not identified in the User Info List field of the firsttrigger frame are available for use as shared resource units.

Method Embodiment 14 The method of Method Embodiment 1, whereinoperating as a host station further includes: selecting, (2408) based onthe amount of data to be transmitted by the first wireless stationduring the first trigger based frame, a subset of resource units in saidfirst trigger based frame to be used exclusively by the first wirelessstation; and designating (2410) one or more subsets of resource units insaid first trigger based frame to be shared, each of said designatedsubsets of resource units being a set of shared resource units.

Method Embodiment 15 The method of Method Embodiment 1, wherein saiddecision to make one or more transmission resources acquired by thefirst wireless station available for use by one or more other wirelessstations a during a first frame time period is a decision to participatein a shared transmission in which the host station will allow one ormore wireless stations to operate as guest stations and use at leastsome of the shared transmission resources in the first trigger basedframe while the first wireless stations exclusively uses one or moreother resource units of the first trigger based frame to communicatedata to a first access point.

Method Embodiment 16 The method of Method Embodiment 1, whereintransmitting (2414) a first trigger based frame corresponding to thefirst trigger frame includes transmitting (2416) energy on at least oneresource unit in said first trigger based frame while not transmittingany energy on the shared resource units identified by the information insaid first trigger frame.

Method Embodiment 17 The method of Method Embodiment 16, whereinoperating (2404) the wireless station to act as a host station furtherincludes: monitoring (2418) for an acknowledgement from a first accesspoint to which said first trigger based frame is transmitted; andreceiving (2420) a first acknowledgement from the first access pointcorresponding to the first trigger based frame.

Method Embodiment 18 The method of Method Embodiment 17, wherein saidfirst acknowledgment includes an indication whether data wassuccessfully received from the host station on one or more resourceunits on which the host station transmitted energy, wherein operating(2404) the wireless station to act as a host station further includes:processing (2422) the first acknowledgement to determine if datatransmitted in the resource units in said first trigger based frame onwhich the first wireless station transmitted energy was successfullyreceived without checking to determine if the first access pointsuccessfully received data in the shared resource units of the firsttrigger based frame.

Method Embodiment 19 The method of Method Embodiment 1, furthercomprising: during a second time period, operating (2426) the firstwireless station to act as a guest station, operating the first wirelessstation as the guest station including: receiving (2428) a secondtrigger frame from another wireless station; determining (2430) that asecond trigger based frame corresponding to the second trigger frameincludes one or more sets of shared resource units that are availablefor use by the first wireless station; transmitting (2458) data to thefirst access point in at least one of the one or more sets of sharedresource units included in the second trigger based frame.

Method Embodiment 20 The method of Method Embodiment 19, whereindetermining (2430) that a second trigger based frame corresponding tothe second trigger frame includes one or more set of shared resourceunits that are available for use by the first wireless station includes:determining (2432) that a type indicator in said received second triggerframe indicates that the trigger frame is a shared transmission type oftrigger frame.

Method Embodiment 21 The method of Method Embodiment 19, whereinoperating (2426) the first wireless station as a guest station furtherincludes: identifying (2434) the shared resource units corresponding toeach of one or more set of shared resources units in said second triggerbased frame.

Method Embodiment 22 The method of Method Embodiment 21, whereinidentifying (2434) the shared resource units corresponding to each ofone or more set of shared resources units in said second trigger basedframe includes: identifying (2438) a set of shared resource units insaid trigger based frame.

Method Embodiment 23 The method of Method Embodiment 22, whereinidentifying (2438) set of shared resource units in said trigger basedframe includes: recovering (2440) information identifying a set ofshared resource units from a RU allocation field of a Guest Userinformation field of a User Info List Field of the second trigger frame.

Method Embodiment 24 The method of Method Embodiment 21, wherein saidsecond trigger frame includes a User Info List field including a HostUser Info field and one or more Guest User Info fields.

Method Embodiment 25 The method of Method Embodiment 21, wherein saidsecond trigger based frame includes two or more sets of shared resourceunits; and wherein operating (2426) the first wireless station to act asa guest station further includes: selecting (2442) one of said sets ofshared resources units to be used by the first wireless station.

Method Embodiment 26 The method of Method Embodiment 20, whereinoperating (2426) the first wireless station to act as a guest stationfurther includes: determining (2444 or 2448) that only a single set ofshared resources is available to be used by a guest STA in the secondtrigger based frame.

Method Embodiment 27 The method of Method Embodiment 26, wherein saiddetermining (2444) that only a single set of shared resources isavailable to be used by a guest STA in the second TB frame includes:determining (2446) that only one set of Guest User Information in aGuest User Info Field of a User Info List Field of said second TriggerFrame was received.

Method Embodiment 28 The method of Method Embodiment 27 furthercomprising: identifying (2338 and 2440) the single set of sharedresource units in said trigger based frame from information included inthe RU allocation field of the Guest User Info Field.

Method Embodiment 29 The method of Method Embodiment 26, wherein saiddetermining (2448) that only a single set of shared resources isavailable to be used by a guest STA in the second TB frame includes:determining (2450) that receiving a set of Host User information in aHost User Info Field of a User Info List field of the second Triggerframe without receiving any Guest User Info fields in the User Info Listfield of the second Trigger frame.

Method Embodiment 30 The method of Method Embodiment 29, whereinoperating (2426) the first wireless stations to act as a guest stationfurther includes: determining (2452) the single set of shared resourcesthat are available to be used by a guest STA in the second trigger basedframe from received information identifying the total resources of thesecond trigger based frame and information identifying the resourceunits of the second trigger based frame which the another wirelessstation has reserved for its own use.

Method Embodiment 31 The method of Method Embodiment 30, whereindetermining (2452) the single set of available guest STA resource unitsincludes: identifying (2454) the single set of shared resources as theresources left over after removing the identified resource units of thesecond trigger based frame which the another wireless station hasreserved for its own use from the total resource units of the triggerbased frame.

Method Embodiment 32 The method of Method Embodiment 19, whereinoperating (2426) as the first wireless station as the guest stationfurther includes: receiving (2458) a second acknowledgement from thefirst access point indicating whether or not the first access pointsuccessfully received data transmitted by the first wireless stationusing one or more shared resource units included in the second triggerbased frame.

Method Embodiment 33 The method of Method Embodiment 32, whereinoperating (2426) as the first wireless station as the guest stationfurther includes: determining (2462) from the received secondacknowledgement if any of the data transmitted using a shared resourceunit of the second trigger based frame was not successfully received(note that that the first wireless stations does this without checkingor determining if data transmitted in non-shared resource units of thesecond trigger based frame were successfully received or acknowledgedsince such non-shared resource units of the second trigger based frameare not used by the first wireless station to communicate data)

Method Embodiment 34 The method of Method Embodiment 32, whereinoperating (2426) the first wireless station as the guest station furtherincludes: prior to transmitting (2458) data to the first access point inat least one of the one or more shared resource units included in thesecond trigger frame, identifying (2436) from information in the secondtrigger frame one or more sets of shared resource units that areincluded in the second trigger based frame.

Method Embodiment 35 The method of Method Embodiment 34, whereinoperating (2426) the first wireless station as the guest station furtherincludes: identifying (2433) attributes of the second trigger basedframe (e.g., the TB frame duration, the number of non-legacy STF/LTF ofthe TB frame, RUs of all shared occasion) from trigger frame fieldsincluded in the second trigger frame.

Method Embodiment 36 The method of method embodiment 35, whereinoperating (2426) the first wireless station as the guest station furtherincludes: generating (1515) a trigger based frame in accordance with oneor more of the identified attributes of the second trigger based frame,generating the trigger based frame including generating at least onelegacy symbol, said at least one legacy symbol being a Legacy STFsymbol, LTF symbol or SIG symbol and generating at least one non-legacysymbol, said non-legacy symbol being a non-legacy STF symbol ornon-legacy LTF symbol; and transmitting (1516) the generated triggerbased frame wherein transmitting the generated trigger based frameincludes transmits the generated non-legacy symbol on the sharedresources of the non-legacy STF or LTF portion of the generated triggerbased frame (e.g. only transmits on the shared resources of thenon-legacy STF/LTF).

NUMBERED LIST OF EXEMPLARY APPARATUS EMBODIMENTS

Apparatus Embodiment 1 A first wireless station (2600) comprising: awireless transmitter (2624); a wireless receiver (2622); memory (2612);and a processor (2602) configured to: operate (2404) the first wirelessstation (2600), during a first time period, to act as a host station,operating as a host station including: making a decision (2406) to makeone or more transmission resources acquired by the first wirelessstation (e.g., by successfully completing a listen before talk andacquiring the right to transmit or through other means such as by aresource grant to the host station) available for use by one or moreother wireless stations a during a first frame time period; transmitting(2412) (via wireless transmitter 2624) a first trigger frame including atype indicator indicating that the trigger frame is a sharedtransmission type of trigger frame and information identifying one ormore sets of shared resource units (e.g., where shared resource unitsare resource units that are available for sharing and are thus availablefor use by other wireless stations); and transmitting (2414) (viawireless transmitter 2624) a first trigger based (TB) framecorresponding to the first trigger frame, said first trigger based frameincluding a plurality of resource units, transmitting the first triggerbased frame including transmitting energy on some but not all of theresource units in said first trigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 2 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 1, wherein said memory includes a trigger type subfieldencoding table which maps different trigger frame types to differentpredetermined values, one of said different trigger frame types being ashared resource trigger frame type. (For example, the table includes:trigger type subfield value=8 which maps to “Shared Transmission”.)

Apparatus Embodiment 3 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 1, wherein said information identifying one or more sets ofshared resource units explicitly identifies resource units (e.g., byincluding one or more resource unit identifiers) of a first triggerbased frame, corresponding to the first trigger frame, which are to beused as shared resource units.

Apparatus Embodiment 4 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 1, wherein said information identifying one or more sets ofshared resource units identifies non-shared resource units of a firsttrigger based frame, corresponding to the first trigger frame, remainingunits in the first trigger based frame beyond the non-shared resourceunits being shared resource units (thus in this case the informationimplicitly identifies the shared resource units by explicitly identifythe non-shared resource units with the understanding that the omittedresource units are to be shared).

Apparatus Embodiment 5 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 1, wherein said first frame time period is the time period ofthe first trigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 6 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 1, wherein said information identifying one or more sets ofshared resources units includes information which explicitly identifiesone or more sets of shared resource units which may be used by guestwireless stations.

Apparatus Embodiment 7 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 6, wherein said information explicitly identifying one ormore sets of shared resource units which may be used by guest wirelessstations includes one of more sets of guest information, each set ofguest information including a RU allocation field indicating a set ofshared resource units, each set of guest information being communicatedin a Guest User Info field of a User Info List field of the firsttrigger frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 8 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 7, wherein said User Info List field of the first triggerframe includes a Host User Info field and one or more Guest User Infofields.

Apparatus Embodiment 9 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 8, wherein each of one or more guest information fields inthe first trigger frame includes an AID12 field with its AID12 fieldvalue being a predetermined value; and wherein said memory (2612)includes said AID12 field predetermined value to be included in the oneor more guest information fields of the first trigger frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 10 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 7, wherein said AID field value, which is used in each guestinformation field of the first trigger frame, equals 000000000000.

Apparatus Embodiment 11 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 1, wherein said information which can be used to identify oneor more sets of shared resources units includes information identifyingthe total resources of the trigger based frame and informationidentifying the resource units of the trigger based frame which thefirst wireless station has reserved for its own use. (There is a singleset of shared resource units in the first TB frame which may be used bya guest STA, where the single set of shared resource units is implicitlycommunicated by the host STA, which sends information in the firsttrigger frame identifying the total resource units of the first TB frameand resource units of the first TB frame allocated by the host STA tothe host STA, with guest STAs and AP determining the single set ofavailable guest STA resource units, e.g., by calculating: single set ofguest STA resource units=total resource units for TB frame−resourceunits allocated by the host STA to the host STA.)

Apparatus Embodiment 12 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 11, wherein the information identifying the resource units ofthe trigger based frame which the first wireless station has reservedfor its own use is communicated in a RU allocation field of a Host UserInfo field of a User Info List field of the first trigger frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 13 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 12, wherein the User Info List field of the first triggerframe includes a Host User Info field but does not include any guestUser Info fields.

Apparatus Embodiment 14 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 13 wherein resource units of the trigger based framecorresponding to the first trigger frame which are not identified in theUser Info List field of the first trigger frame are available for use asshared resource units.

Apparatus Embodiment 15 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 1, wherein operating as a host station further includes:selecting, (2408) based on the amount of data to be transmitted by thefirst wireless station during the first trigger based frame, a subset ofresource units in said first trigger based frame to be used exclusivelyby the first wireless station; and designating (2410) one or moresubsets of resource units in said first trigger based frame to beshared, each of said designated subsets of resource units being a set ofshared resource units.

Apparatus Embodiment 16 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 1, wherein said decision to make one or more transmissionresources acquired by the first wireless station available for use byone or more other wireless stations a during a first frame time periodis a decision to participate in a shared transmission in which the hoststation will allow one or more wireless stations to operate as gueststations and use at least some of the shared transmission resources inthe first trigger based frame while the first wireless stationsexclusively uses one or more other resource units of the first triggerbased frame to communicate data to a first access point.

Apparatus Embodiment 17 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 1, wherein transmitting (2414) a first trigger based framecorresponding to the first trigger frame includes transmitting (2416)energy on at least one resource unit in said first trigger based framewhile not transmitting any energy on the shared resource unitsidentified by the information in said first trigger frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 18 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 17, wherein operating (2404) the wireless station to act as ahost station further includes: monitoring (2418) for an acknowledgementfrom a first access point to which said first trigger based frame istransmitted; and receiving (2420) (via wireless receiver 2622) a firstacknowledgement from the first access point corresponding to the firsttrigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 19 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 18, wherein said first acknowledgment includes an indicationwhether data was successfully received from the host station on one ormore resource units on which the host station transmitted energy,wherein operating (2404) the wireless station to act as a host stationfurther includes: processing (2422) the first acknowledgement todetermine if data transmitted in the resource units in said firsttrigger based frame on which the first wireless station transmittedenergy was successfully received without checking to determine if thefirst access point successfully received data in the shared resourceunits of the first trigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 20 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 1, wherein said processor is further configured to: operate(2426) the first wireless station, during a second time period, to actas a guest station, operating the first wireless station as the gueststation including: receiving (2428) (via wireless receiver 2622) asecond trigger frame from another wireless station; determining (2430)that a second trigger based frame corresponding to the second triggerframe includes one or more sets of shared resource units that areavailable for use by the first wireless station; transmitting (2458)(via wireless transmitter 2624) data to the first access point in atleast one of the one or more sets of shared resource units included inthe second trigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 21 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 20, wherein determining (2430) that a second trigger basedframe corresponding to the second trigger frame includes one or more setof shared resource units that are available for use by the firstwireless station includes: determining (2432) that a type indicator insaid received second trigger frame indicates that the trigger frame is ashared transmission type of trigger frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 22 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 20, wherein operating (2426) the first wireless station as aguest station further includes: identifying (2434) the shared resourceunits corresponding to each of one or more set of shared resources unitsin said second trigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 23 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 22, wherein identifying (2434) the shared resource unitscorresponding to each of one or more set of shared resources units insaid second trigger based frame includes: identifying (2438) a set ofshared resource units in said trigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 24 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 23, wherein identifying (2438) set of shared resource unitsin said trigger based frame includes: recovering (2440) informationidentifying a set of shared resource units from a RU allocation field ofa Guest User information field of a User Info List Field of the secondtrigger frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 25 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 22, wherein said second trigger frame includes a User InfoList field including a Host User Info field and one or more Guest UserInfo fields.

Apparatus Embodiment 26 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 22, wherein said second trigger based frame includes two ormore sets of shared resource units; and wherein operating (2426) thefirst wireless station to act as a guest station further includes:selecting (2442) one of said sets of shared resources units to be usedby the first wireless station.

Apparatus Embodiment 27 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 21, wherein operating (2426) the first wireless station toact as a guest station further includes: determining (2444 or 2448) thatonly a single set of shared resources is available to be used by a guestSTA in the second trigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 28 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 27, wherein said determining (2444) that only a single set ofshared resources is available to be used by a guest STA in the second TBframe includes: determining (2446) that only one set of Guest UserInformation in a Guest User Info Field of a User Info List Field of saidsecond Trigger Frame was received.

Apparatus Embodiment 29 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 28 wherein operating (2426) the first wireless station to actas a guest station further includes: identifying (2338 and 2440) thesingle set of shared resource units in said trigger based frame frominformation included in the RU allocation field of the Guest User InfoField.

Apparatus Embodiment 30 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 27, wherein said determining (2448) that only a single set ofshared resources is available to be used by a guest STA in the second TBframe includes: determining (2450) that receiving a set of Host Userinformation in a Host User Info Field of a User Info List field of thesecond Trigger frame without receiving any Guest User Info fields in theUser Info List field of the second Trigger frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 31 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 30, wherein operating (2426) the first wireless station toact as a guest station further includes: determining (2452) the singleset of shared resources that are available to be used by a guest STA inthe second trigger based frame from received information identifying thetotal resources of the second trigger based frame and informationidentifying the resource units of the second trigger based frame whichthe another wireless station has reserved for its own use.

Apparatus Embodiment 32 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 31, wherein determining (2452) the single set of availableguest STA resource units includes: identifying (2454) the single set ofshared resources as the resources left over after removing theidentified resource units of the second trigger based frame which theanother wireless station has reserved for its own use from the totalresource units of the trigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 33 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 20, wherein operating (2426) as the first wireless station asthe guest station further includes: receiving (2458) (via wirelessreceiver 2622) a second acknowledgement from the first access pointindicating whether or not the first access point successfully receiveddata transmitted by the first wireless station using one or more sharedresource units included in the second trigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 34 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 33, wherein operating (2426) as the first wireless station asthe guest station further includes: determining (2462) from the receivedsecond acknowledgement if any of the data transmitted using a sharedresource unit of the second trigger based frame was not successfullyreceived (note that that the first wireless stations does this withoutchecking or determining if data transmitted in non-shared resource unitsof the second trigger based frame were successfully received oracknowledged since such non-shared resource units of the second triggerbased frame are not used by the first wireless station to communicatedata)

Apparatus Embodiment 35 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 33, wherein operating (2426) the first wireless station asthe guest station further includes: prior to transmitting (2458) data tothe first access point in at least one of the one or more sharedresource units included in the second trigger frame, identifying (2436)from information in the second trigger frame one or more sets of sharedresource units that are included in the second trigger based frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 36 The first wireless station of ApparatusEmbodiment 35, wherein operating (2426) the first wireless station asthe guest station further includes: identifying (2433) attributes of thesecond trigger based frame (e.g., the TB frame duration, the number of(non-legacy) STF/LTF of the TB frame, RUs of all shared occasion) fromtrigger frame fields included in the second trigger frame.

Apparatus Embodiment 37 The first wireless station of apparatusembodiment 36, wherein the processor is further configures as part ofoperating (2426) the first wireless station as the guest station tocontrol the first wireless station to: generate (1515) a trigger basedframe in accordance with one or more of the identified attributes of thesecond trigger based frame, generating the trigger based frame includinggenerating at least one legacy symbol, said at least one legacy symbolbeing a Legacy STF symbol, LTF symbol or SIG symbol and generating atleast one non-legacy symbol, said non-legacy symbol being a non-legacySTF symbol or non-legacy LTF symbol; and transmit (1516) the generatedtrigger based frame wherein transmitting the generated trigger basedframe includes transmits the generated non-legacy symbol on the sharedresources of the non-legacy STF or LTF portion of the generated triggerbased frame (e.g. only transmits on the shared resources of thenon-legacy STF/LTF).

NUMBERED LIST OF EXEMPLARY NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUMEMBODIMENTS

Non-Transitory Computer Readable Medium Embodiment 1 A non-transitorycomputer readable medium including computer executable instructionswhich when executed by a processor of a first wireless station controlthe first wireless station to perform the steps of: during a first timeperiod, operating (2404) the first wireless station to act as a hoststation, operating as a host station including: making a decision (2406)to make one or more transmission resources acquired by the firstwireless station (e.g., by successfully completing a listen before talkand acquiring the right to transmit or through other means such as by aresource grant to the host station) available for use by one or moreother wireless stations a during a first frame time period; transmittinga first trigger frame (2412) including a type indicator indicating thatthe trigger frame is a shared transmission type of trigger frame andinformation identifying one or more sets of shared resource units (e.g.,where shared resource units are resource units that are available forsharing and are thus available for use by other wireless stations); andtransmitting (2414) a first trigger based (TB) frame corresponding tothe first trigger frame, said first trigger based frame including aplurality of resource units, transmitting the first trigger based frameincluding transmitting energy on some but not all of the resource unitsin said first trigger based frame.

The techniques of various embodiments may be implemented using software,hardware and/or a combination of software and hardware. Variousembodiments are directed to apparatus, e.g., user devices such as a userequipment (UE) device, base stations such as a gNB or ng-eNB, networknodes, an AMF device, servers, customer premises equipment devices,cable systems, network nodes, gateways, cable headend/hubsites, networkmonitoring node/servers, cluster controllers, cloud nodes, productionnodes, cloud services servers and/or network equipment devices. Variousembodiments are also directed to methods, e.g., method of controllingand/or operating user devices, base stations, gateways, servers, cablenetworks, cloud networks, nodes, servers, cloud service servers,customer premises equipment devices, controllers, network monitoringnodes/servers and/or cable or network equipment devices. Variousembodiments are also directed to machine, e.g., computer, readablemedium, e.g., ROM, RAM, CDs, hard discs, etc., which include machinereadable instructions for controlling a machine to implement one or moresteps of a method. The computer readable medium is, e.g., non-transitorycomputer readable medium.

It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in theprocesses and methods disclosed is an example of exemplary approaches.Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific orderor hierarchy of steps in the processes and methods may be rearrangedwhile remaining within the scope of the present disclosure. Theaccompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in asample order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order orhierarchy presented. In some embodiments, one or more processors areused to carry out one or more steps of the each of the describedmethods.

In various embodiments each of the steps or elements of a method areimplemented using one or more processors. In some embodiments, each ofelements are steps are implemented using hardware circuitry.

In various embodiments nodes and/or elements described herein areimplemented using one or more components to perform the stepscorresponding to one or more methods, for example, message reception,signal processing, sending, comparing, determining and/or transmissionsteps. Thus, in some embodiments various features are implemented usingcomponents or in some embodiments logic such as for example logiccircuits. Such components may be implemented using software, hardware ora combination of software and hardware. Many of the above describedmethods or method steps can be implemented using machine executableinstructions, such as software, included in a machine readable mediumsuch as a memory device, e.g., RAM, floppy disk, etc. to control amachine, e.g., general purpose computer with or without additionalhardware, to implement all or portions of the above described methods,e.g., in one or more nodes. Accordingly, among other things, variousembodiments are directed to a machine-readable medium, e.g., anon-transitory computer readable medium, including machine executableinstructions for causing a machine, e.g., processor and associatedhardware, to perform one or more of the steps of the above-describedmethod(s). Some embodiments are directed to a device, e.g., acontroller, including a processor configured to implement one, multipleor all of the steps of one or more methods of the invention.

In some embodiments, the processor or processors, e.g., CPUs, of one ormore devices, e.g., communications nodes such as controllers areconfigured to perform the steps of the methods described as beingperformed by the communications nodes, e.g., controllers. Theconfiguration of the processor may be achieved by using one or morecomponents, e.g., software components, to control processorconfiguration and/or by including hardware in the processor, e.g.,hardware components, to perform the recited steps and/or controlprocessor configuration. Accordingly, some but not all embodiments aredirected to a device, e.g., communications node such as a clustercontroller including, with a processor which includes a componentcorresponding to each of the steps of the various described methodsperformed by the device in which the processor is included. In some butnot all embodiments a device, e.g., communications node such as acontroller, includes a controller corresponding to each of the steps ofthe various described methods performed by the device in which theprocessor is included. The components may be implemented using softwareand/or hardware.

Some embodiments are directed to a computer program product comprising acomputer-readable medium, e.g., a non-transitory computer-readablemedium, comprising code for causing a computer, or multiple computers,to implement various functions, steps, acts and/or operations, e.g. oneor more steps described above. Depending on the embodiment, the computerprogram product can, and sometimes does, include different code for eachstep to be performed. Thus, the computer program product may, andsometimes does, include code for each individual step of a method, e.g.,a method of controlling a controller or node. The code may be in theform of machine, e.g., computer, executable instructions stored on acomputer-readable medium, e.g., a non-transitory computer-readablemedium, such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), ROM (Read Only Memory) orother type of storage device. In addition to being directed to acomputer program product, some embodiments are directed to a processorconfigured to implement one or more of the various functions, steps,acts and/or operations of one or more methods described above.Accordingly, some embodiments are directed to a processor, e.g., CPU,configured to implement some or all of the steps of the methodsdescribed herein. The processor may be for use in, e.g., acommunications device such as a controller or other device described inthe present application. In some embodiments components are implementedas hardware devices in such embodiments the components are hardwarecomponents. In other embodiments components may be implemented assoftware, e.g., a set of processor or computer executable instructions.Depending on the embodiment the components maybe all hardwarecomponents, all software components, a combination of hardware and/orsoftware or in some embodiments some components are hardware componentswhile other components are software components.

Numerous additional variations on the methods and apparatus of thevarious embodiments described above will be apparent to those skilled inthe art in view of the above description. Such variations are to beconsidered within the scope. Numerous additional embodiments, within thescope of the present invention, will be apparent to those of ordinaryskill in the art in view of the above description and the claims whichfollow. Such variations are to be considered within the scope of theinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a first wireless station,the method comprising: during a first time period, operating the firstwireless station to act as a host station, operating as a host stationincluding: making a decision to make one or more transmission resourcesacquired by the first wireless station available for use by one or moreother wireless stations during a first frame time period; transmitting afirst trigger frame including a type indicator indicating that the firsttrigger frame is a shared transmission type of trigger frame andinformation identifying one or more sets of shared resource units; andtransmitting a first trigger based (TB) frame corresponding to the firsttrigger frame, said first trigger based frame including a plurality ofresource units, transmitting the first trigger based frame includingtransmitting energy on some but not all of the resource units in saidfirst trigger based frame.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein operatingas a host station further includes: selecting, based on the amount ofdata to be transmitted by the first wireless station during the firsttrigger based frame, a subset of resource units in said first triggerbased frame to be used exclusively by the first wireless station; anddesignating one or more subsets of resource units in said first triggerbased frame to be shared, each of said designated subsets of resourceunits being a set of shared resource units.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein said decision to make one or more transmission resourcesacquired by the first wireless station available for use by one or moreother wireless stations during a first frame time period is a decisionto participate in a shared transmission in which the host station willallow one or more wireless stations to operate as guest stations and useat least some of the shared transmission resources in the first triggerbased frame while the first wireless station exclusively uses one ormore other resource units of the first trigger based frame tocommunicate data to a first access point.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein transmitting a first trigger based frame corresponding to thefirst trigger frame includes transmitting energy on at least oneresource unit in said first trigger based frame while not transmittingany energy on the shared resource units identified by the information insaid first trigger frame.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein operatingthe wireless station to act as a host station further includes:monitoring for an acknowledgement from a first access point to whichsaid first trigger based frame is transmitted; and receiving a firstacknowledgement from the first access point corresponding to the firsttrigger based frame.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein said firstacknowledgment includes an indication whether data was successfullyreceived from the host station on one or more resource units on whichthe host station transmitted energy, and wherein operating the wirelessstation to act as a host station further includes: processing the firstacknowledgement to determine if data transmitted in the resource unitsin said first trigger based frame on which the first wireless stationtransmitted energy was successfully received without checking todetermine if the first access point successfully received data in theshared resource units of the first trigger based frame.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: during a second time period, operating thefirst wireless station to act as a guest station, operating the firstwireless station as the guest station including: receiving a secondtrigger frame from another wireless station; determining that a secondtrigger based frame corresponding to the second trigger frame includesone or more sets of shared resource units that are available for use bythe first wireless station; and transmitting data to a first accesspoint in at least one of the one or more sets of shared resource unitsincluded in the second trigger based frame.
 8. The method of claim 7,wherein operating the first wireless station as the guest stationfurther includes: receiving a second acknowledgement from the firstaccess point indicating whether or not the first access pointsuccessfully received data transmitted by the first wireless stationusing one or more shared resource units included in the second triggerbased frame.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein operating the firstwireless station as the guest station further includes: prior totransmitting data to the first access point in at least one of the oneor more shared resource units included in the second trigger frame,identifying from information in the second trigger frame one or moresets of shared resource units that are included in the second triggerbased frame.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein operating the firstwireless station as the guest station further includes: identifyingattributes of the second trigger based frame from trigger frame fieldsincluded in the second trigger frame.
 11. The method of claim 10,wherein operating the first wireless station as the guest stationfurther includes: generating a trigger based frame in accordance withone or more of the identified attributes of the second trigger basedframe, generating the trigger based frame including generating at leastone legacy symbol, said at least one legacy symbol being a Legacy STFsymbol, LTF symbol or SIG symbol and generating at least one non-legacysymbol, said non-legacy symbol being a non-legacy STF symbol ornon-legacy LTF symbol; and transmitting the generated trigger basedframe, wherein transmitting the generated trigger based frame includestransmits the generated non-legacy symbol on the shared resources of thenon-legacy STF or LTF portion of the generated trigger based frame. 12.A first wireless station comprising: a wireless transmitter; a wirelessreceiver; memory; and a processor configured to: operate the firstwireless station, during a first time period, to act as a host station,operating as a host station including: making a decision to make one ormore transmission resources acquired by the first wireless stationavailable for use by one or more other wireless stations during a firstframe time period; transmitting a first trigger frame including a typeindicator indicating that the first trigger frame is a sharedtransmission type of trigger frame and information identifying one ormore sets of shared resource units; and transmitting a first triggerbased (TB) frame corresponding to the first trigger frame, said firsttrigger based frame including a plurality of resource units,transmitting the first trigger based frame including transmitting energyon some but not all of the resource units in said first trigger basedframe.
 13. The first wireless station of claim 12, wherein transmittinga first trigger based frame corresponding to the first trigger frameincludes transmitting energy on at least one resource unit in said firsttrigger based frame while not transmitting any energy on the sharedresource units identified by the information in said first triggerframe.
 14. The first wireless station of claim 13, wherein operating thewireless station to act as a host station further includes: monitoringfor an acknowledgement from a first access point to which said firsttrigger based frame is transmitted; and receiving a firstacknowledgement from the first access point corresponding to the firsttrigger based frame.
 15. The first wireless station of claim 12, whereinsaid processor is further configured to: operate the first wirelessstation, during a second time period, to act as a guest station,operating the first wireless station as the guest station including:receiving a second trigger frame from another wireless station;determining that a second trigger based frame corresponding to thesecond trigger frame includes one or more sets of shared resource unitsthat are available for use by the first wireless station; andtransmitting data to a first access point in at least one of the one ormore sets of shared resource units included in the second trigger basedframe.
 16. The first wireless station of claim 15, wherein operating thefirst wireless station as the guest station further includes: receivinga second acknowledgement from the first access point indicating whetheror not the first access point successfully received data transmitted bythe first wireless station using one or more shared resource unitsincluded in the second trigger based frame.
 17. The first wirelessstation of claim 16, wherein operating the first wireless station as theguest station further includes: prior to transmitting data to the firstaccess point in at least one of the one or more shared resource unitsincluded in the second trigger based frame, identifying from informationin the second trigger frame one or more sets of shared resource unitsthat are included in the second trigger based frame.
 18. The firstwireless station of claim 17, wherein operating the first wirelessstation as the guest station further includes: identifying attributes ofthe second trigger based frame from trigger frame fields included in thesecond trigger frame.
 19. The first wireless station of claim 18,wherein the processor is further configured as part of operating thefirst wireless station as the guest station to control the firstwireless station to: generate a trigger based frame in accordance withone or more of the identified attributes of the second trigger basedframe, generating the trigger based frame including generating at leastone legacy symbol, said at least one legacy symbol being a Legacy STFsymbol, LTF symbol or SIG symbol and generating at least one non-legacysymbol, said non-legacy symbol being a non-legacy STF symbol ornon-legacy LTF symbol; and transmit the generated trigger based frame,wherein transmitting the generated trigger based frame includestransmitting the generated non-legacy symbol on the shared resources ofthe non-legacy STF or LTF portion of the generated trigger based frame.20. A non-transitory computer readable medium including computerexecutable instructions which when executed by a processor of a firstwireless station control the first wireless station to perform the stepsof: during a first time period, operating the first wireless station toact as a host station, operating as a host station including: making adecision to make one or more transmission resources acquired by thefirst wireless station available for use by one or more other wirelessstations during a first frame time period; transmitting a first triggerframe including a type indicator indicating that the first trigger frameis a shared transmission type of trigger frame and informationidentifying one or more sets of shared resource; and transmitting afirst trigger based (TB) frame corresponding to the first trigger frame,said first trigger based frame including a plurality of resource units,transmitting the first trigger based frame including transmitting energyon some but not all of the resource units in said first trigger basedframe.